Sharon worked in the nurse-led leg ulcer clinic once a week in her first job as a newly qualified nurse on a general surgical ward back in 2000. The ward then transitioned to a vascular ward and she was inspired and motivated by the TVN. She became a TVN in 2015 and then completed the Tissue Viability and Wound Management Masters course in 2016.

In September 2018 she was successfully appointed as the Lead Clinical Nurse Specialist for Tissue Viability at Barnsley NHS Foundation Trust.

She has always had an interest in wound care and how wounds healed and as her years in nursing progressed she became interested in why they occur and how they can be prevented from occurring. The impact that having a wound, no matter what the aetiology, has on a person is greatly underestimated.

Her absolute passion is the prevention of pressure ulcers, and she has been fortunate enough to be able to enable the use of an audit tool app and programme that shows the improvements in relation to documentation, equipment and positioning. This is having a positive effect on the number of pressure ulcers that patients are acquiring.

She is also keen to look at ways to improve the management of leg ulcers/cellulitis in hospitals and believes that should start at the first point of care in the Emergency Department.

Presentation at The Society of Tissue Viability 2022 Conference

How can we improve antimicrobial stewardship in wound care? Panel debate

Objectives

After attending this session, persons will be able to:

• Have a better understanding of the principles of AMS
• Recognise the importance of AMS within wound care
• Be able to identify the challenges in promoting AMS in practice
• Be able to recognise their role in AMS
• Have a greater understanding of how AMS can be conducted when caring for patients with infected wounds

Abstract

With the growing global problem of antimicrobial resistance, it is crucial that clinicians use antibiotics wisely, which largely means following the principles of Antimicrobial Stewardship (AMS). This is a multi-modal approach that includes infection prevention and the promotion of judicious use of antimicrobials to preserve their future effectiveness, while also improving the safety and quality of patient care (NICE, 2014; NICE 2015).

All open wounds will be colonised with bacteria, but antibiotic therapy is only required for those that are clinically infected. It is known that this guidance isn’t always followed, with some patients receiving multiple courses of antibiotics for wound infections that have been misdiagnosed.

In addition, topical antimicrobials are being increasingly used in wound care creating concerns of micro-organisms developing resistance to these therapies as well.

This panel discussion will explore some of the challenges in managing wounds at risk of infection and will provide delegates with a greater understanding of why AMS is important, who should be involved in AMS and what decisions/ action should be taken when caring for patients with infected wounds.