Wound care


From art I


t’s fair to say that Sebastian Probst has dedicated his life to the field of wound care. The current president of the European Wound Management Association (EWMA) started out as a registered nurse in Switzerland in the early 2000s, before deciding to specialise in wounds. He hasn’t looked back since, gaining a master’s degree and a PhD in the field, and establishing himself as an academic as well as a practitioner. “From there, I


Practical Patient Care / www.practical-patient-care.com


to science


The prevalence of chronic wounds is on the rise in the developed world. This is due to its population living longer and an increase in the rate of conditions like diabetes mellitus – one of the most common reasons the body might struggle to regenerate tissue after sustaining a wound. The European Wound Management Association has been at the forefront of defining good wound management practices since its inception in 1991, and ahead of its upcoming conference, the organisation’s president Sebastian Probst tells Peter Littlejohns why wound care is still in a transitional phase from an art to a science.


became head of wound care for five hospitals in the southern part of Switzerland,” he says. “We’re talking 2005, so a nurse-led outpatient clinic was pretty innovative.” There’s no shortage of innovative thinking in wound care, a fact marked by the numerous products on the market, but like most areas of medicine, the management of wounds evolved from very primordial beginnings. It’s impossible to pin down the earliest use of a wound


51


Portrait Image Asia/Shutterstock.com


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73