Education

Education

Skin Tears (2020)

The NZ Wound Care Society, supported by ACC, presented New Zealand’s inaugural Wounds Awareness Week in August 2020.


Skin Tears are acute wounds, often occurring, because of preventable accidents such as falls and knocks. However, due to the underlying health status of an individual, they can often lead to a chronic wound, which can negatively impact a person’s physical, mental, social and spiritual/cultural wellbeing, including their family/whanau and carers.

Skin tears can be prevented through recognising and managing the risk factors. Therefore, it is important to increase public awareness, through education and empowering patients, whanau and carers through self-management to prevent.

If a skin tear does occur, then early identification, assessment and appropriate treatment is important to reduce the risk of them becoming chronic wounds. Health professionals need to be aware of risks so that early referral to specialist services can be made, particularly in populations with complex comorbidities that contribute to delayed healing.

 

Webinar Video Presentations

Section 1 - Definition, Statistics, Causes and Risk Factors
Section 2 - Prevention
Section 3 - Assessment and Management
Written Case Study - click here and case study answer sheet - click here

 

Resources

 

Frail Skin/Dermatoporosis
Asepsis and Aseptic Technique
Surgical Site Infection
Burns and Scalds
Skin Tears

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