Volume 6, Number 1

Nick Evans BSc National Programme Director, Action On Dermatology, NHS Modernisation Agency

The Action On Dermatology programme has been under way since autumn 2000. The programme is part of the Department of Health’s work surrounding the delivery of the NHS Plan, and was established as a short-life initiative to explore the challenges faced by dermatology services across England, to identify and develop ways of responding to these challenges, and to spread the knowledge and experience gained throughout the NHS.

Julie Bowman, Editor

My daughter recently did her first parachute jump, an event videoed for posterity to the soundtrack of ‘Suicide blonde’. A terrifying but exhilarating experience, which sums up how I feel as I begin my editorship of this journal. I can only hope that, like her, I achieve a safe landing by continuing to carry out the excellent work of my predecessors, who have worked so hard to make the British Journal of Dermatology Nursing the professional publication that it is today.

Nichola Rumsey BA(Hons) MSc PhD CPsychol AFBPsS Director, Centre for Appearance and Disfigurement Research (CADR), University of the West of England Bristol; Alex Clarke BSc(Hons) MSc DPsych CPsychol AFBPsS RN Head of Training, Changing Faces, London; Menna Wyn-Williams MSc Research Psychologist, CADR, University of the West of England, Bristol

Understanding the impact of altered appearance in disfiguring dermatological conditions is an important part of patient care. This article reports on the findings of a psychosocial audit of the extent and type of patients’ needs in such circumstances, and discusses ways in which nurses can identify and support patients who experience psychosocial distress.

Linda Smith RGN RSCN Dip HE DN Community Children’s Nursing Team Leader, Local Health Partnerships NHS Community Trust

Dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (EB) can be either a dominantly or a recessively inherited disorder and, in the majority of cases, the dominant form is the milder disease. However, there is great variation in the severity of both dominant and recessive dystrophic EB.

Hywel C Williams MSc FRCP PhD Professor of Dermato-Epidemiology, Centre of Evidence-Based Dermatology, Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottingham

The British Epidermo-Epidemiology Society (BEES) is a multiprofessional group of individuals interested in epidemiology and health services research (HSR) as applied to skin diseases. Epidemiology is the study of the causes and distribution of diseases, tackling questions such as, ‘How common is eczema?’ and ‘What causes acne?’

Ellie Lindsay BSc (Hons) RN DNCert DipHE CPT District Nursing Sister, The Surgery Otley, Suffolk

Every patient has the right to receive relevant information, support and encouragement from the nurse, to enable him or her to make informed choices and become involved in his or her own care.1 This paper describes an initiative in leg ulcer management, whereby patients’ compliance to treatment is enhanced in an environment in which they are empowered to participate in, and take ownership of, their treatment.

Anne Hindhede RGN, Department of Dermatology, Örebro University Hospital, Örebro, Sweden

Sweden has around nine million inhabitants and 23 counties or regions, each of which has a council that is responsible for the area’s healthcare and medical services. However, the responsibility for all long-term service and care of the elderly and disabled people, aside from care involving doctors, lies with the 289 local communities.