Veteran nurse advocates multifaceted wound care development

Susan Law Siu-ming
Nurse Consultant
Princess Margaret Hospital

Inappropriate care of wound may lead to infection or other complications. Unhealed chronic wounds cause not only pain for patients but also distress to one’s daily life. Nurse Consultant Susan Law, who established a nurse clinic specialising in stoma and wound care in Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH) in 1994, is the pioneer of this service.

Being also the first nurse clinic in PMH, the stoma and wound care clinic now registers almost 2,000 attendances a year. A nurse-led multidisciplinary subcommittee was launched in 2013 with the collaboration of clinical and allied health experts under Susan’s leadership. The pressure injury incidence rate of the hospital has been monitored since and is subsequently reduced from over 2% to around 0.5%.

Well known as being a pragmatic person, Susan is keen to pass on her skills through training. Since 1998, her training programmes for liaison nurses in stoma care and wound care have improved competence of nurses in prevention and management of stoma care and wound care. In the past 10 years, Susan has conducted more than 100 workshops and lectures for some 2,850 nurses in PMH and Kowloon West Cluster. She shares insights on wound care by vivid examples at work. For instance, a patient admitted to hospital with recurrent leg ulcer prone to the risk of amputation finally recovered fully thanks to Susan’s effective care plan centred on personal hygiene, nutrition, exercise, and wound management, as well as consulting vascular surgeon on possibly less traumatic surgical intervention.

Susan is regularly invited to serve as consultant and advisor in local and international universities and associations. Being a member of the International Pressure Injury Guideline Governance Group, she works with global experts from the USA, Germany and France to develop guidelines on prevention and management of pressure injuries. Local and international work contributes to multifaceted development of wound care.

When it comes to patient wellbeing, Susan always walks an extra mile. Seeing elderly patients cannot take care of themselves after undergoing stoma surgery, Susan would seek medical social workers’ help to arrange meal delivery service. When she notices emotional distress among patients and family members, she would talk to them, counsel them and cheer them up. “Action speaks louder than words. I try to help every patient with active listening and support,” she says. “It is encouraging to see patients glow with smiling face after accepting their condition and live positively.”