Jane has worked in Palliative care for nearly 19 years. She is currently the Lead Nurse for Tissue viability on the 19 bedded inpatient unit of St Giles Hospice, Lichfield. Within this role Jane leads on all aspects of palliative tissue viability care across all services at St Giles Hospice. She provides hands on clinical care and advice to patients with compromised tissue viability. She supports clinical staff on a day to day basis in the management of patients with tissue viability needs and complex wounds

She has developed policies, standard operating procedures and instigated their implementation across the Hospice and shared guidance on palliative wound care nationally. Acting as an expert in matters relating to complex palliative wound problems in a Hospice setting Jane has a specialist interest in malignant fungating wounds. Jane provides advice and training on palliative wound care, prevention and management of pressure ulcers on specialist Palliative care courses. She has and also worked with the Hospice UK charity to develop national guidance on wound care, benchmarking and audit tools for UK hospices.

Presentation at the Optimising skin health and wound healing in palliative care settings specialist/service specific study day

Management of Malignant fungating wounds

Abstract

The impact of a malignant fungating wound on a patient’s life cannot be underestimated. These complex wounds affect the patient physically, psychologically and socially and can be an overwhelming experience for the patient and their family. If care is to be holistic, then these issues must be addressed.

These wounds are seen as the most distressing, challenging and complex cases that health professionals have to manage. Typically Management of these non-healing wounds involves practices that diverge from those used in other settings as knowledge is taken from clinical experience rather than evidence-based guidelines.

This session will explore

• Definitions of fungating wound
• Symptoms and their impact on patients and carers
• Strategies that focus on managing these symptoms and improving quality of life