Editor`s Opinion: Hope in Practical Resolve

  Last year, Newsweek compiled a list of statistics to illustrate how much of what people generally worry about is based on perception, not reality or an understanding of risk. For example, we generally worry more about murders (14,180 in 2008) than suicides (33,289 in 2006).

Shark attacks are headline news (28 in 2009); dog bites rarely are (average annual estimate: 4.5 million). Many people are concerned about flying (fatal airline accidents: 321 in 2005) but don’t think twice about getting in the car (fatal car crashes: 34,017 in 2008). In 2008, 33 Americans were killed by terrorist attacks around the world; every year, an average of 36,171 Americans die from the seasonal flu. All perceptions are affected by the world around us, by what we do and do not see.

  In our clinical arena, wound care professionals worry more about getting wounds to heal than about the people who should be in their clinic but are not because they can’t afford it. More is published about wound treatment than about prevention and more publications discuss “fancy” interventions than basic care. We focus on topicals to prevent infection but rarely discuss hand washing, which recently was shown to be the biggest deterrent to methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus — ie, MRSA.

  Perhaps our expectations for 2011 should include a reality check. Now that many of us have vacated our January resolve (mostly for self-improvement), maybe we should concentrate on increasing our understanding of risk ratios and how we can effect real change. Maybe 2011 will even bring some useful products and changes that make a documentable difference — for example, some type of glow-germ that turns on when hands have not been washed for a set amount of time or gloves that change color when contaminated. Perhaps in our efforts to improve patient care, we could institute a healthcare system that rewards all wound prevention efforts as well as prevention-focused research that helps us understand how this can be achieved.

  The literature proliferates proof that healthcare professionals have become masters at juggling. Hence, we have equipment to remind us to do all sorts of things. How about a “change positions” pressure warning system for high-risk patients or “too much pressure” system for the shoes of patients with diabetic neuropathy? Of course, the need for wound care experts will never go away. If this issue of OWM has a message, it is that not all pressure ulcers are preventable and quality care is required in their management, regardless of how or why they occurred. But hope for the future, hope for truly averting pain and suffering, lies in our expertise to help prevent wounds and complications. Will 2011 be the year we first saw Prevention Practitioners? We certainly can resolve to champion their potential.

This article was not subject to the Ostomy Wound Management peer-review process.