Sarah qualified as an Adult Nurse in 2013, following which she worked in various areas of NUTH Trust, including Infectious Diseases, Orthopaedic Rehabilitation and of course Tissue Viability.

Whilst working with the Tissue Viability team, Sarah was inspired to undertake her MSc in Wound Healing and Tissue Repair at Cardiff University, which she will complete this year with a qualitative research study focussing on the experiences of Mental Health nurses who carry out wound care . Her wide range of experiences within Tissue Viability at NUTH, and the great volume of studying she has undertaken for the MSc has now enabled her to develop her career in a totally new direction, as Trust Lead for Tissue Viability & VTE in CNTW. This is a small team covering the entire inpatient population of the Trust, and providing care, support and education for both patients and staff.

Presentation at the Skin health and wound healing in mental health settings specialist/service specific study day

Mental Health and Wound Care – Supporting Staff to deliver High Quality Care

Abstract

The number of adults requiring admission into specialist mental health (MH), learning disability (LD) and autism inpatient services in England is steadily growing. Despite the large numbers of people experiencing concurrent mental and physical health problems, there continues to be a lack of co-ordinated care between MH services and PH services in both primary and secondary care. This becomes most noticeable when providing wound care for patients currently receiving inpatient MH treatment. There is a paucity of evidence to demonstrate the importance of wound care in MH settings, particularly when compared to wound care in the PH setting, where there is an unspoken assumption that nursing staff will have basic wound care skills. This presentation will look at how we can empower and support MH nurses to develop their wound care and management skills in order to ensure optimal outcomes for our patients.