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Investing in Some Very Important Real Estate
After months of planning and designing … after weeks of sending notifications to entities such as the National Library of Medicine (fondly known as PubMed) and our royalties company … and after updating our files on our manuscript management system, transferring more than 15 years’ worth of articles and accompanying data from the old website to the new, and acquiring new ISSNs, we are finally ready to be known as Wound Management & Prevention (formerly Ostomy Wound Management) and introduce you to our redesigned print issue and website (www.woundmanageprevent.com).
Renaming and redesigning our journal was not unlike buying a fixer-upper, something my real-estate-loving husband has made me all too familiar with. You assess the property (aka, journal) and decide whether it warrants the improvements that will make it habitable and comfortable (ie, reader-relevant) for the tenants (or in this case, the readers) you want to attract. You decide the project is a go. We knew the journal needed an overhaul to better reflect the shifting focus in wound care, particularly with regard to pressure injury, from treating to preventing wounds. This thought is underscored by Jeremy Bowden, Senior Vice President/Publisher. “As the field continues to evolve, we thought it was the appropriate time to change our journal to be more in line with articles we publish that are trending toward managing and preventing wounds,” he said.
You formulate a plan with contractors (in the journal’s case, our company’s design, production, IT, and marketing teams), timing everything out to facilitate a smooth transition. You approve the designs, hang the new cover on your office wall, and save it to your phone.
Then the electrician tells you he can’t access the wall on which you planned to install an additional outlet. Or with the journal, the content gets snarky about shifting from the old website to the new one, not to mention the challenge of incorporating several reader-friendly enhancements not previously available.
But then you savor the property’s fresh, new look. I hold this inaugural issue in my hands with the same reverence, knowing the improvements will make our articles easier to access and to read, both in print and online, our new “address” evidence of our determination to perpetuate our mission to inform wound, ostomy, and continence care clinicians well into a bright future.
Our “bones” (as my husband calls the basic structure of his buildings) remain the same and strong. Clinical Editor Lia van Rijswijk, DNP, MSN, CWCN, ensures our readers, “We continue to stand on the shoulders of giants to improve the lives of those who entrust us with their care,” publishing articles that address all of the clinical, demographic, and psychosocial issues that have bearing on wound care, as evidenced in this issue. Ostomies are permanent or temporary wounds (read the article by Kelleher et al1 on a new barrier seal designed for ileostomates) with all their attendant potential implications. Incontinence wreaks havoc on skin (check out the article by Leblebicioglu et al2 on developing and testing a new fecal incontinence containment device). Be sure to explore Gagnier and Pieper’s3 consideration of the role of end-stage renal disease, hemodialysis, and depression on the risk of developing wounds that become chronic and weigh the benefits of 3-dimensional wound measurement in the article by Darwin et al.4
This first issue of Wound Management & Prevention will introduce you to an ongoing column5 on caring for neonatal and pediatric wounds (“Children With Wounds: Asking the Right Questions”). At our Editorial Board members’ astute request, we also are initiating Back to Basics,6 a column to refresh or impart knowledge on the most fundamental of wound care devices (ie, dressings) and to underscore the important information available from Why Wound Care? (www.whywoundcare.com).
Nothing worthwhile is easy, and so it has been with this precious real estate I present to you. Every investment we make in its future is an investment in your future. Wound care et al may not be the most glamorous, “sexy” niche in health care, but the need to know how to prevent and heal wounds pervades every aspect of medicine. People who know how to do both are becoming more and more valuable in every setting, from acute care to home care, from neonates to the elderly. Thank you for being part of our evolution. Let us know what you think!
References
1. Kelleher K, Hunt R, Hannigan A, et al. A single-arm, practical application assessment of user experience and peristomal skin condition among persons with an ileostomy using a new barrier seal with assisted flow. Wound Manage Prev. 2019;65(1):14–19.
2. Leblebicioglu H, Khorshid L, Ongadan Z, Ozturk G. Development of a new incontinence containment product and an investigation of its effect on perineal dermatitis in patients with fecal incontinence: a pilot study in women. Wound Manage Prev. 2019;65(1):20–27.
3. Gagnier SA, Pieper BA. An integrative review of depression in patients receiving hemodialysis for end-stage renal disease and the relevance to patients with wounds. Wound Manage Prev. 2019;65(1):28–33.
4. Darwin ES, Jaller JA, Hirt PA, Kirsner RS. Comparison of 3-dimensional wound measurement with laser-assisted and hand measurements: a retrospective chart review. Wound Manage Prev. 2019;65(1):36–41.
5. Boyar V. Issues in pediatric wound care. Wound Manage Prev. 2019;65(1):10.
6. Weir D. Back to Basics: Wound Dressings: Key to Wound Management. Wound Manage Prev. 2019;65(1):42.
