Volume 8, Number 1

Anna Rich BSC(HONS) RN DIP ENB N18 Leg Ulcer Liaison Sister, Queen’s Medical Centre, Nottingham

As part of your leg assessment, your nurse will need to perform a Doppler ultrasound test. This is a straightforward procedure, which is carried out by a nurse trained to perform it. Its purpose is to measure the arterial blood supply to your lower legs and the results will help your doctors and nurses to rule out the presence of any narrowing (also called occlusion) in the arteries in your legs.

Lesley Robinson RGN BSC(HONS) DIP NP Vascular Nurse, Cumberland Infirmary, Carlisle

Doppler ultrasound testing, or Doppler ultrasonography, is a simple, quick, non-invasive test which can be used to check the condition of arteries in the lower limb.

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

Those of us involved in healthcare are going to have to get used to credicide: the death of belief in general, and in us specifically.

Jane Fraser RGN BSC(HONS) Senior Clinical Nurse Specialist/Health Adviser, Department of Genitourinary Medicine, North Cumbria Acute Hospitals NHS Trust

Various dermatological conditions have been associated with HIV infection. While the widespread use of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in the UK since the late 1990s has led to a reduction in the more severe presentations, we now see adverse drug reactions and the effect of immune restoration causing some dramatic skin reactions. HIV specialists can manage common presentations, but access to a dermatology unit is essential, because many conditions have atypical features.

Christopher EM Griffiths BSC MB BS MD FRCP FRCPATH Professor of Dermatology and Honorary Consultant Dermatologist, Hope Hospital, University of Manchester

The first years of this millennium have witnessed considerable progress in our management of psoriasis. Advances have been made in a variety of areas – new, improved topicals; development of systemics that may replace ciclosporin and acitretin; adaptation of laser technology; and targeting of biological therapies to T-cell and cytokine pathways that are key to the psoriatic process.

Anne Craig RGN Rheumatology Nurse Practitioner, Royal Lancaster Infirmary, Lancaster

Anyone who has seen Dennis Potter’s ‘The Singing Detective’ will remember the plight of the main character, covered in sores and petroleum jelly, and struggling with gnarled and useless joints. The programme painted a grim picture of this uncommon condition, psoriatic arthritis, a mouthful of a disease that can cause misery and disability if left untreated.

Julie Bowman, Editor

What does the public think of nurses? Not what we would wish, according to a recent poll commissioned and published by the Nursing Standard.1 Its results are both fascinating and bizarre.

Leo Barco MD Locum Consultant Dermatologist; Clara Inglesias MD Locum Consultant Dermatologist, St Richard’s Hospital, West Sussex

The importance of nursing in dermatology departments in the UK is paramount.1 Nurses play a very active role in patient care and some of them are entitled not only to run nurse-led outpatient clinics but also to prescribe. This paper highlights the main differences between Spanish and British specialised nursing and describes the less central role played by Spanish dermatology nurses.