Volume 6, Number 3

Gill Rolfe BA RGN DPSN Dermatology Nurse Specialist, Northamptonshire Heartlands PCT

Acne vulgaris is one of the most common conditions to affect the skin. Statistics suggest that 95% of 16-year-old boys and 83% of 16-year-old girls are affected by the condition.1 It is a disease that can seriously affect a person’s life and can result in scarring of the skin and psyche, particularly if it occurs, as it often does, during the formative years of adolescence.2

Gill Godsell RN Dermatology Nurse Specialist, Queen’s Medical Centre, University of Nottingham

With more than 100,000 new cases each year, skin cancer is the most common cancer in the UK.1 Although most cases are not fatal, if left untreated, the local damage to surrounding structures can be great. Actinic keratoses (AKs) have a small risk of developing into squamous cell carcinoma2 – a tumour that can metastasise and prove fatal.

Julie Bowman, Editor

The Russian writer Anton Chekhov once said, ‘When a lot of remedies are suggested for a disease that means it cannot be cured’. Almost a century later, to some degree, this remains true. Outright curative treatments for many
disease states are not yet possible, the emphasis of care being one of providing adequate control over a chronic disease. Often, affected individuals will need to take more than one medication, backed up by other treatment modalities, for most of their lifetime.

Beverly Wilson RGN BSc (Hons) ENB N18 N49 998 934 Clinical Nurse Manager, Leeds Centre for Dermatology, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

Graduated compression hosiery is a form of elastic support, worn on the legs, that gently squeezes them to help the blood to travel back up to the heart more effectively.

Marie Retzback, Clinical Nurse Specialist Dermatology, West Suffolk Hospital NHS Trust

Atopic eczema is the most common inflammatory skin condition in the UK, with a reported prevalence of 15–20% in children.1 Psychological factors can play a major role in both maintaining and aggravating the condition. Elevated stress levels can exacerbate symptoms, leading to feelings of social isolation, embarrassment and shame. In children, this can affect their ability to integrate into school society.

Lesley Robinson RGN BSc (Hons) Dip Vascular Nurse Practitioner, Cumberland Infirmary, Carlisle, North Cumbria Acute Hospitals NHS Trust

Leg ulceration is a major health problem in the UK, costing the health service millions of pounds per annum.1 The elderly are the most commonly affected patient group.

Stephen Wright FRCN MBE Associate Professor. Faculty of Health, St Martin’s College Lancaster and Chairman of the Sacred Space Foundation

It might be taken as given that the use of touch is a natural part of dermatology nursing care. This paper questions that assumption and explores the connection between touch and healing, and the possibilities of touch extending beyond the conventional notion of contact with the skin. Indeed, it will be posited in this paper that ‘we do not end at our skin’.1 Other approaches will be considered, such as therapeutic touch (TT), which asks us to reach out beyond orthodox views of the nature of touch.