Volume 7, Number 3

Jennie Sutton RGN BSc(Hons) Professional Practice in Healthcare Freelance Facilitator, North Cumbria

Benchmarking is not a new tool; it was used to build the pyramids.1 A notch was cut in a rock while a strip of iron was placed horizontally in the notch and this acted as the ‘bench’ for a levelling rod. This reference point helped to survey height and distance measurements.

Judy Walker BA (Hons) HPSET Chairman of the Trustees, National Association of Hospital Play, Staff and Play Services Manager, University College London Hospitals

Atopic eczema is a common health problem for children and adolescents throughout the world. The prevalence of the condition has increased two- to threefold since the 1960s and continues to rise, now affecting 15–20% of children in developed countries.1

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

At a recent party I attended in honour of an old woman, not a few people winced when the word ‘crone’ was used to describe her coming of age, for it has come to be a pejorative term in our culture.

Julie Bowman, Editor

Preconception to postbereavement; healthcare professionals are everywhere. Advising the feckless on a myriad of health-related subjects, armed with an arsenal of leaflets and numerous health policies, they are as deadly as Exocet missiles in finding new targets, ‘Halitosis – let me help’.

Alex Laird BSc DipPhyt MNIMH Medical Herbalist, Whipps Cross University Hospital, London

Herbal medicine has an important and educative role to play in treating patients with skin problems. For the past two years, medical herbalists have been working with the dermatology team at Whipps Cross University Hospital, taking referred patients with chronic skin problems that have failed to respond to conventional treatment or where conventional treatment has had unwanted side-effects, and patients who have requested herbal medicine.

Frank McGuckin, Patient, Cumberland Infirmary, Carlisle

In 1971, I was a fit and healthy 23-year-old, a keen sportsman with a good social life. I was working as an electrician with good prospects and had just become engaged. But things were about to change.

Omar Ali BSc (Hons) Pharm DipClinPharm MRPharmS ACPP Prescribing Consultant and Formulary Development Pharmacist, Surrey and Sussex NHS Trust

In this two-part feature on psoriasis (part two to appear in the winter issue of the British Journal of Dermatology Nursing), I aim to put the spotlight on some of the evolving areas in the management of psoriasis. In particular, I would like to explore in further detail the issues raised very recently at a satellite symposium during the annual meetings of the British Association of Dermatologists and the British Dermatological Nursing Group – held in July† – at which I, along with three other healthcare professionals working in the field of dermatology, was invited to speak.

Brenda Rathmell RGN N25 ENB 998 Senior Sister Dermatology, Leeds General Infirmary

Photochemotherapy (PUVA) combines UVA light with the light-sensitising drug psoralen. The British Photodermatology Group (BPG) has developed guidelines for oral and topical PUVA1,2 which form the basis of best practice. This article outlines PUVA as a lead-in to the following article, What I tell my patients about photochemotherapy.