The voice of wounded people: appreciating the life lived

I am writing this at EWMA 2019, and what an amazing start to the summer for national and international wound care it has been.

The highlight of the year is the strong representation and voice of people living with wounds that has been incorporated into our national campaigns and conference programmes. Having used narrative inquiry to explore the experience of injecting drug users living with leg ulceration for my Doctorate in Health Research (DHRes), I am all too mindful of the need for the narratives of people living with illness and wounds to be heard.

I refer back to an encounter I had with a doctor some years ago, one of the many examples I use when I discuss the dangers of labelling patients without knowing the person. I was approached by one of the senior doctors on a busy ward about a woman who had been admitted with a leg ulcer. He said to me ‘Can you possibly see this IDU* with a leg ulcer in bed 20?’. I replied: ‘For sure … does the lady have a name?’. He smiled shyly at me with a look on his face; a second of reflection perhaps. I raised my eyebrow and smiled. ‘Sure sure’ he said and quickly gave me her name.