Wound bed preparation: TIME in practice

Caroline Dowsett is Nurse Consultant in Tissue Viability, Newham Primary Care Trust, London, and Heather Newton is Nurse Consultant in Tissue Viability, Royal Cornwall Hospital Trust, Cornwall Wound bed preparation is now a well established concept and the TIME framework has been developed as a practical tool to assist practitioners when assessing and managing patients with wounds. It is important, however, to remember to assess the whole patient; the wound bed preparation ‘care cycle’ promotes the treatment of the ‘whole’ patient and not just the ‘hole’ in the patient. This paper discusses the implementation of the wound bed preparation care cycle and the TIME framework, with a detailed focus on Tissue, Infection, Moisture and wound Edge (TIME).