For Logan Hospital wound care nurses Leeanne Johnson and Cathy Kindness, a scratch, cut or insect bite can be the beginning of a much bigger problem.
Clinical Nurse Consultant Leeanne said she saw this firsthand when a patient scratched his leg on chicken wire while tending to his chickens.
“What started as a small scratch ended up a big, exposed wound that took us months and months to heal,” she said.
During Wound Awareness Week, the nurses were encouraging people to pay attention to wounds that were not healing as expected, particularly as warmer weather resulted in more insect bites and other minor injuries.
Clinical Nurse Cathy said more than 450,000 Australians experienced wounds that were slow to heal, only partially heal or repeatedly returned each year.
"Factors including poor circulation, diabetes, smoking, poor nutrition and reduced mobility could all affect the body’s ability to heal, and part of managing chronic wounds means addressing these as well as simply treating the wound itself," she said. “The dressing doesn’t heal the wound, the patient heals the wound."
Leanne and Cathy urged people to seek medical advice if a wound became red, hot or painful, particularly if they were feeling unwell.
"People don’t have to wait and suffer in silence at home,” they said. “It might save someone’s limb.”