Pressure ulcers are a significant problem in both the acute sector and the community, where nurses can spend a great deal of their time dealing with what is a painful and debilitating condition. As government policy encourages more care to be delivered in patients’ homes, finding solutions to pressure damage that aid healing and improve patients’ quality of life, as well as being cost-effective, is paramount. This article examines the background to pressure damage, as well as looking at its effect on community nurses’ workload. In particular, it focuses on the heel as a common site of pressure damage.

Lorraine Grothier, Clinical Nurse Specialist (Tissue Viability), Tissue Viability Service, Provide, delivering NHS and local authority services