Wound Care’s Newest Buzzword and Slogan
Every so often, in my readings of newspapers, articles, and while pleasure reading, or during conversations with friends and colleagues, I come across a word that smacks me right in the kisser. I was listening to a news commentary and this new buzzword nonchalantly emanated from the speaker’s lips. It took me but a second before I realized what an insidiously powerful little devil it was. The speaker droned on about the current political scenario, the state of medical care, and then, in Judge Wapner-like reckoning described his presumed foes points as “counterintuitive.” This unusual word “counterintuitive” has a definition that is both painfully simple and thought-provokingly powerful. Intuition is simply the perception of something using common sense. Adding “counter” to it moves it into the realm of mystery and suspense. Counter intuitive, something that is unlikely to be found correct when assessed and evaluated.
The problem is that the meaning of counterintuitive is usually in the eyes of the beholder or the “be-dabbler” in the case of wound care. There are far too many things done in an incorrect, non-evidence-based, un-best-practice-based manner in the profession that I love so dearly. The problem is that identifying something as counterintuitive means that you have to have some semblance of intuition regarding the issue or in other words, half an idea of what you are talking about. The real issue, however, is that the care you provide needs to be self-scrutinized, self-evaluated, and dare I say it, reviewed by your peers and those you work intimately with who will provide you an honest, unbiased opinion regardless of whether you like it or not.
I received a call from a patient in a long-term care facility to resume care for him. Once at home and doing well, he had fallen into the black hole of the local medical center and then was unceremoniously dumped into a long term care facility. The astute wound care NP running their wound “lack of care” program wrote a War and Peace worthy history and physical and then documented his venous insufficiency, venous insufficiency ulcers, mild secondary lymphedema and his obesity with debility … read more