Creating practice enablers

A fundamental part of this selective is describing the process in the development of the selective and the output. To demystify ABIs I had planned to create an enabler to practice to assist clinicians in the implementation and interpreation of ABIs. The plan was to conduct a survey amongst healthcare professionals and to create an enabler to include multi-media. In fact, this blog has become that very enabler. I have requested ethics approvals to conduct a survey of healthcare professionals and compare the difference subsets. I would hope to publish the survey findings on this blog too. I have also reveiwed the literature on enabler development. I found this article by Sue Rosenthal in Wound Care Canada titled 'Three tips for Creating Effective Enablers.

It can be found at http://www.cawc.net/open/wcc/4-3/enablertips.html

Sue cites three key considerations
1) Consider your audience.
2) Use analogy to help explain concepts and assist retention.
3) Present information in more than one way.

I am reflecting on these tips relative to my blog. More to follow!

The History of Doppler

The Austrian, Christain Doppler lived 1803-1853. He was a Professor in Elementary Mathematics and Practical Geometry at the Institute of Physics at Vienna University. He first published what we now call the Doppler Principle in 1843 describing the frequency of a source to its velocity relative to an observer. His work continued with demonstrations of musicians on a moving train and he published again in 1846. It was not until a century later in 1957 that there is eveidence of the effect being considered in medicine. Satomura used it to study the heart structure and functioning in 1957-59. Franklin 1961 produced an ultrasonic flow meter based on the Doppler principle and by the late 1960s it had been used on patients with arterial and venous disease. Yao did much of the ongoing research and by 1989 had established normal and abnormal pressure index.

New resource from WorldWideWounds

I found a paper by Peter and Kath Vowden on WorldWideWounds from 2001. There are several written by the Vowdens on the subject. On WorldWideWounds this link is still the most relevant from a search. I have written to both MEP and Peter Vowden.

Here is the link to the paper. http://www.worldwidewounds.com/2001/march/Vowden/Doppler-assessment-and-ABPI.html

I have also posted some comments and links on the CAWC Discussion Forum.

Arterial and venous sounds

Many healthcare professionals struggle with differentiating between venous and arterial sounds. These audio files are useful enablers to teaching and education on ABIs. The CAWC are included them in their S2 seminar series.

"Sounds coming soon!"

Canadian Association of Wound Care Quick Reference Guide

The CAWC have given me kind permission to include their Quick Reference Guide (QRG) on my blog. They are attached here in English and French. Thank you CAWC. More information can be found at www.cawc.net. Relevant to this selective on ABI are their Best Practice Recommendation summaries on leg ulcers and diabetic foot ulcers.
English
http://www.scribd.com/doc/3036172/CAWC-QRG-2006-ENG?secret_password=1z03udosnnc2hvkur8q6
French
http://www.scribd.com/doc/3036187/ACSPGRR2006FRE?secret_password=1co2v62d63v5c75y10p9

Best Practice Recommendations review

Here is the latest. Colleagues and friends have continued to direct me to valuable literature. Thank you Susie Seaman and the group in Cardiff, UK. I have added further, I need to review the RNAO best practice guidelines. I will then combine every thing and rework a consensus based on the different recommendations.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/2933554/ABI-Best-Practice-Guidelines?secret_password=2ctbnkic0lred2x24e25

ABI calculator enabler

This simple enabler was created based on the new (2006), Canadian Association of Wound Care Best Practice recommendations on venous leg ulcers

http://www.scribd.com/doc/2933540/ABI-calculator-and-guide?secret_password=c0wvn6enhohoe68qkv2