Abstract
Wound care practitioners are drawn from many different disciplines and cultural backgrounds, each with their own languages, dialects and professional jargons. However, such an international, interdisciplinary art and science requires a mutual understanding of agreed-on terms and definitions. This shared language is essential for wound care teams to communicate in daily practice, as well as to compare their clinical experience and research results at conferences and in publications. All of this will raise the quality of care and, ultimately, improve patient outcomes.
This harmonised glossary of terms builds on the work of others who have sought agreement on the language of wound healing. The authors of this project began with a review of published literature that sought to define terms used in wound care. They then synthesised the various definitions of similar terms, harmonising the often subtle differences between them. Terms are defined as they relate to wound care specifically. To ensure that these definitions would find common acceptance worldwide and across disciplines, an international panel of experts from differing fields was invited to review an initial draft of the glossary. The authors and panel held a consensus meeting, where they reached agreement on the harmonisation of terms. The result is this harmonised glossary, published in the Journal of Wound Care. It is circulated as part of the journal's author instructions to help standardise terminology across future submissions.
This glossary will be revisited every 2 years so that, where necessary, it can be amended to align with new research and updates to evidence-based practice. In that regard, should readers agree or disagree with any of the definitions or have suggestions or comments to improve future editions, the authors would welcome engagement. This will ensure the harmonised glossary of wound care terms becomes an evolving tool that everyone finds useful—the rarest of accolades when it comes to books.