Practitioner
Development UK

provides quality continuing professional development for advanced health practitioners. Our courses are designed for a variety of health care providers including nurse practitioners, GPs, practice nurses, health visitors, school nurses, paramedics and pharmacists. For further information visit our website on www.pduk.net

Latest in-house programmes

Our in-house courses are tailored to your requirements and are the cheapest way to keep staff up-to-date with current practice.

A49 : Cardiac and Respiratory Assessment

IH93 : Essentials of PICC Line Management in Primary Care

AR43 : Auditing Your Telephone Triage Service

IH40 : 6-8 Week Baby Check

AR06 : Blood Results Made Easy

AR28 : Managing Pain and Bugs with Drugs

P18 : Getting to Grips with Paediatric Minor Injuries

IH94 : Transient Ischaemic Attack (TIA) and Stroke: the Role of the Primary Care Provider

AR49 : Ear Care Awareness for HCAs

IH42 : ECG Essentials for Health Care Support Workers

AR18 : IV Pharmacology Made Easy

AR38 Advanced X-ray Image Interpretation - The Central Skeleton

and more

Latest scheduled courses

Our scheduled courses will refresh, develop and improve your skills.

IH77 Musculoskeletal Minor Injuries: Refresh and Refine Your Skills

IH91 Intravenous Therapy Core Skills

A49 Depression in the Chronically Ill Patient

IH80 Dealing with Dementia/ Understanding Dementia

AR44 Recognising Common Dermatological Conditions in People of Colour

A43 Sexual Health and Family Planning

IH89 The ABCs of ECGs

P17 Minor Injuries in Children (1-18 years of age)

AR40 Immunisation Training for HCAs: Influenza & Pneumococcal Vaccinations

AR39 The ABCs of Wound Care for Health Care Assistants

and more

Recommended products

We have a wide range of publications and resources to support and reinforce our workshops and courses. ALL publications purchased on line are discounted at 10%.

PDUK courses from June - October

P14 : Paediatric Asthma Update

5 Day Patient Assessment Skills Workshop

Musculoskeletal Minor Injuries: Refresh and Refine Your Skills

Minor Injury Essentials

Minor Surgical Procedures

X-ray Interpretation of Minor Injuries

The ABCs of ECGs

Intravenous Therapy Core Skills

Recognising Common Dermatological Conditions in People of Colour

The ABCs of Dermatology

ENT “Top Ten”

Common Presentations in Women’s Health

Sexual Health and Family Planning

Depression in the Chronically Ill Patient

Dealing with Dementia/Understanding Dementia

Telephone Triage

Paediatric Minor Illness

Minor Injuries in Children (1-18 years of age)

Sports Injuries and Minor Traumas in Young People

Assessment & Management of Minor Ailments in Young People (5-18 Years Old)

Immunisation Training for HCAs

The ABCs of Wound Care for Health Care Assistants

  

Under the microscope:

Poor sunscreen use puts lives at risk

Nine out of ten people in the UK are putting their lives at risk because they don't know how to apply sunscreen properly according to a new survey.

People either don't use enough sunscreen or fail to reapply it frequently enough. This means they are vulnerable to sunburn which can cause skin cancer.

The survey, carried out by Cancer Research UK and Superdrug, showed only 13 per cent of the population know to apply two tablespoons of sunscreen to cover their entire body and 20 percent don't use any at all. When holidaying abroad, nearly half of people don't reapply sunscreen after two hours and, when in the UK, this rises to nearly 80 per cent.

Nearly half of British people do not reapply sunscreen or don't use it in the UK sun despite the fact it can be just as damaging as in hotter countries.

Caroline Cerny of Cancer Research UK said, "It's really concerning that people don't know how to use sunscreen properly. Sunscreen only works if you put enough on. You can't make up for a thin layer by increasing the factor you use.

"Rates of the most deadly form of skin cancer, melanoma, are on the rise in the UK, so we really want people to take note of what they can do to protect themselves. Applying sunscreen regularly and generously is a start."

The survey also showed people are confused by the SPF rating and what it actually means. Many think SPF30 offers double the protection of SPF15. In fact SPF15 filters out 93 per cent of damaging UVB radiation and SPF30 only 96 percent, giving just three per cent more protection.

On the case:

Dermatology problems in coloured skin

Patricia, a 40-year-old Afro-Caribbean lady, has presented with an eight-month history of concentric annular red and black rings appearing over her torso and limbs. These are scaly, itchy and, she says, sometimes have tiny blisters at the edge. Patricia has visited her GP on numerous occasions and has been given a variety of creams and ointments to apply. Some have helped by reducing the itch and the redness but the lesions have remained. Blood tests have proved to be negative and no other tests had been done.

Questions:

  1. What is your diagnosis?
  2. Is Patricia infectious?
  3. What is the cause of this skin problem?
  4. Will the hyper-pigmentation go or is Patricia permanently scarred?

Answers:

  1. Patricia has extensive Tinea Corporis and, when undressed, she showed lesions in all stages of activity.
  2. Yes, Patricia is infectious for as long as she is producing new inflammatory lesions.
  3. Tinea Corporis is a fungal infection.
  4. Once treated the hyper-pigmented areas will gradually fade with intensive moisturising. Permanent scarring is extremely unlikely.

The variation in the colour of these annular lesions depend on the degree of the inflammatory disease; the red scaly areas were active disease and always on the outer edge and the darker rings were post inflammatory hyper-pigmentation. This is a complication of inflammation in a pigmented skin. Between the rings are areas of normal skin.

On further questioning and examination you notice Patricia’s son and daughter both have very scaly scalps with some hair loss and pustules. This has been occurring on and off for over a year.

Questions continued

  1. What could be causing this?
  2. What is the best treatment for this condition?
  3. Why is it necessary to give all three systemic rather than topical medication?

Answers continued

  1. The whole family had samples taken for mycology which proved to be positive for Trichophyton Tonsurans. (Tinea Capitis)
  2. All three patients were given systemic Terbinafine for 4-6 weeks.
  3. The children were given systemic Terbinafine as only systemic treatment will eradicate the fungus. Topical antifungal treatments do not penetrate the hair follicles in which the fungus resides. Patricia was treated with systemic Terbinafine because of the severity and extent of her skin disease.

In brief…

  • PDUK's The ABCs of Dermatology and Recognising Common Dermatological Conditions in People of Colour will help you offer improved care to your patients. For further details, click here
  • Would you like further information on running an In House course in your area? For further details, click here.
  • Still waiting for our latest brochure? Click here.

Ask PDUK

Amy Winsor is a clinical nurse specialist in dermatology with over 30 years experience. She has published articles in numerous professional journals and runs dermatology clinics in south London. She answers your questions below…

Can you explain what is meant by weekend therapy when treating eczema flare ups?

When a patient has frequent exacerbations of their eczema, one approach is to apply steroid cream to the flare-up sites two days a week. The aim is to prevent a flare-up from happening and is often called weekend therapy. It can mean the total amount of topical steroid used is less than if each flare-up was treated as and when it occurred.

Why is Tinea Capitis still of epidemic proportions in large urban areas in the UK?

There are several reasons for this:

  1. The infection is difficult to diagnose as it presents in many different ways.
  2. The failure to treat the infection effectively. To be eradicated Tinea Capitis has to be treated systemically as topical treatments alone do not clear infection from the hair follicles. Systemic drugs are weight dosed and have to be taken for 4-8 weeks depending on the drug of choice.
  3. Siblings and close family members are rarely screened and so the infection spreads.

A patient was recently told she had lichen planus which may have been a side effect to one of the medications she was taking. What medications have this side effect?

Experts are not sure of the exact causes of lichen planus but there are a number of possible causes. It may occur as a reaction to some medicines, these include betablockers, anti-inflammatory medications, gold injections, antimalarials, thiazide diuretics and phenothiazines.