Volume 2, Number 2

Marie Cunningham RGN RSCN Nurse Specialist, Acne Support Group, Hayes

Acne is dermatology’s forgotten disease, regarded by many as so common that it is not worth considering a problem. With better education and provision of care by nurses, its treatment can be improved.

Christine Howlett RGN Dermatology Nurse, Crawley Hospital; Sue Kington-Smith RGN ENB100 Light Therapy Services Coordinator, Oxford Radcliffe Hospital

Christine Howlett and Sue Kington-Smith, Crookes and BDNG award winners, report on their Travel Fellowships to the 1998 Dermatology Nursing Association conference in Orlando

Marcia Hill MSN RN Editor, Dermatology Nursing, USA

Congratulations to Julie Van Onselen and the BDNG on the British Journal of Dermatology Nursing. The publication of a journal is a true sign that an organisation has come of age. Though younger than the Dermatology Nurses’ Association (DNA), and an ocean apart, the BDNG has the same goal as the DNA – promotion, development and support of dermatology nursing and quality patient care delivery.

Sian Scott, Development Officer, Therapeutic Care, British Red Cross

The appearance of the skin, hair and nails are important factors in the development of social and sexual relationships in our society. Although disfigurement of the skin is often discounted as being of little significance, it can be profoundly disabling.

Helen Wilson RGN (left), Dermatology Specialist Nurse, Prince Charles Hospital, Merthyr Tydfil

Phototherapy using narrowband UVB is a very effective treatment for many dermatological conditions and, although it is prescribed by a consultant, the phototherapist is responsible for selecting the right dose to treat the patient’s condition. Performing a minimal erythemal dose (MED) test enables the therapist to calculate the starting dose for phototherapy treatment. Helen Wilson RGN (left), Dermatology Specialist Nurse, Prince Charles Hospital, Merthyr Tydfil, shows how to perform an MED test.

Gillian Morrison RGN Clinic Manager, Royal Group of Hospitals Belfast

Publicity campaigns regarding care in the sun have become an annual feature each summer. There has been a huge emphasis on the need for primary preventive measures to attempt to reduce the year on year increase in the incidence of skin cancer by the year 2005.1 While these health education packages and campaigns are invaluable and are helping to improve the public’s understanding of the causes of skin cancer and its prevention, knowledge alone is not enough2 to ensure behavioural changes.

Peter Lapsley, Chief Executive, National Eczema Society and Skin Care Campaign

Early in 1994, Tina Funnell, my predecessor at the National Eczema Society, was instrumental in establishing and launching the Skin Care Campaign (SCC). Essentially an umbrella organisation for skin patient support groups, its aims were to harness the resources of everyone interested in skin health in order to reduce the incidence of skin disease; to create a dermatology resource centre for the collection, collation and dissemination of information on all dermatological matters; to assist patient support groups; and to raise awareness of skin diseases and the needs of people affected by them.