A nurse from the NHS trust that runs Ealing Hospital, Central Middlesex and Northwick Park has been shortlisted for two healthcare awards for pioneering work to help spot potentially serious skin damage earlier in Black and Asian patients.
Luxmi Dhoonmoon, a nurse consultant in tissue viability at London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust, has been shortlisted in both the BAME Nurse of the Year and Trailblazer in Inclusion Excellence categories at the annual BAME Health and Care Awards.
She began looking at the issue after noticing that patients from ethnic minority backgrounds were presenting with pressure ulcers at a later stage.
Early signs of pressure ulcers can include changes in skin colour, but these can be more difficult to identify on darker skin.
In response, nurses and healthcare assistants across the trust have been issued with skin tone cards showing a range of skin colours from light to dark, designed to help staff identify possible warning signs sooner.
Pressure ulcers can become significantly deeper if they are not identified and treated, with the most severe cases affecting underlying bone and having a major impact on patients’ quality of life.
Ms Dhoonmoon said: “Sometimes things are so obvious we overlook them.”
She now hopes the skin tone card approach could also be adapted to help healthcare professionals identify early-stage cellulitis, a painful bacterial skin infection.
