Scholarships advance wound treatment
Sep 03, 2009
Wound treatment at Bankstown Hospital is advancing in strides, thanks to a local nurse and Bankstown Sports Club.
Fleur Trezise, Clinical Nurse Consultant and Transitional Nurse Practitioner of Wound Management at Bankstown Hospital, was awarded one of the 2009 Bankstown Sports Club Nurses Scholarships in May this year (her second such scholarship). Club president John Murray and directors of the club presented the nurse scholarships on International Nurses Day.
2009 is the fourth year the scholarships have been awarded as part of a five year agreement to provide $40,000 per year to the hospital, $200,000 in total.
Having just returned from the 13th Annual Oxford European Wound Healing Summer School, Ms Trezise is now keen to expand the treatment of lymphoedema – a debilitating condition caused by the collection of fluids in the leg or arm tissue and their subsequent swelling.
“There are not many known services available for the management of lymphoedema,” says Ms Trezise. “I want to explore and link up with these services so Bankstown can give patients longer term care.”
A nurse-led wound clinic currently operates out of Bankstown Hospital with
80 per cent of its patients being treated for venous leg ulceration. Ms Trezise says most patients suffering such chronic wounds are elderly but they also treat younger patients.
“A young gentleman in his 30s was referred to us by his GP because of a wound he’d had on his leg for over two years. Because of the wound he couldn’t get full time employment and was quite a depressed and angry young man,” says Ms Trezise. “The dressings on his leg had been changed but there was no further investigation into the wound. We discovered a venous leg ulcer, treated it with compression and 12 weeks later he was employed full time.”
Ms Trezise’s current work with chronic leg wounds advances the research she undertook in 2007, after winning the Bankstown Sports Nurses Scholarship for the first time. Ms Trezise travelled to the UK for a tour of clinical Leg Clubs, observing the treatment of leg ulcers by world renowned specialists such as Professor Keith Harding.
Sixty-two nurses have been awarded scholarships since the program began in 2006. The scholarships have enabled them to complete graduate certificates in specialty areas, and begin Masters degrees and doctorates. Many nurses have attended international conferences including the US National Magnet Conference, which teaches on the recruitment and retention of nursing staff.
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