A joint statement by the National Eczema Society, the British Dermatological Nursing Group, and the British Association of Dermatologists can be viewed here.

The British Association of Dermatologists has formed a Topical Steroid Withdrawal Working Party Group (TSW WPG) in collaboration with National Eczema Society, Scratch That, Primary Care Dermatology Society and British Dermatological Nursing Group. The aim of the TSW WPG is to produce an expert consensus guidance on supporting people with concerns about TSW, including a Patient Information Leaflet (PIL), and any revision to the above joint statement, as appropriate.

Following the publication of Isotretinoin Implementation Expert Working Group report, the BDNG, BAD and PCDS have produced a series of videos to help healthcare professionals to understand and safely use the new documentation for prescribing isotretinoin. More information

This guidance has been developed as an extension to the existing ‘Clinical Dermatology Nursing Role Descriptors: Guidance on scope of practice’ to acknowledge the critical role of healthcare assistants and highlight the evolving nursing associate role in the nursing workforce , as well as their scope of practice within dermatology services. The guidance is intended to help support recruitment, retention and career development of healthcare assistants and nursing associates in the specialty highlighting the necessary training requirements for career progression.

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What is Eczema Care Online? 

www.EczemaCareOnline.org.uk is an online toolkit to support people with eczema to self-care.  The website provides Top Tips on how to live well with eczema and has been designed to be accessible, comprehensive and suitable for both adults and children.

We hope that healthcare professionals will also find this to be a useful resource to signpost patients to during clinical consultations and when prescribing/dispensing eczema treatments.

www.EczemaCareOnline.org.uk is free to access and does not require registration.

Using Eczema Care Online has been shown to improve eczema severity in a paper published in the BMJ (http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/bmj-2022-072007?ijkey=Zijf1NGvzHHLFZL&keytype=ref).

Eczema Care Online been developed as part of a National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) funded programme grant and has been developed with extensive input from people with eczema, clinical experts, health psychologists and the most up-to-date evidence.

Health professionals can either:

Direct patients straight to the website at www.EczemaCareOnline.org.uk, or

Print out a ‘Two Treatments Used Well’ leaflet at www.eczemacareonline.org.uk/en/two-treatments-documents.  The leaflet helps health professionals to share evidence-based messages about eczema treatment and signposts people to Eczema Care Online to find out more.

The BDNG produced a series of videos highlighting the variety of roles within dermatology nursing. Click here to view these videos

BDNG in collaboration with Karger recently published Fast Facts titled Dermatological Nursing  A practical guide on career pathways.  To access this online click here.  If you would like a hard copy please contact us.

The National Eczema Society (NES) has been receiving enquiries from patients worried about using topical corticosteroids (TCS) and of the risk of Topical Steroid Withdrawal. They have also seen more activity on social media by people campaigning for greater recognition of the risks of Topical Steroid Withdrawal, coupled with a rise in potentially confusing and inaccurate information available online.

While remaining evidence-based, NES wanted to move to a position where they recognised and more openly acknowledged Topical Steroid Withdrawal, and people’s individual choice in deciding how they manage their eczema. This is a complex area and the research literature is limited.

The NES has worked jointly with the British Association of Dermatologists to produce information for patients on this topic. This statement is available as a related document on this section of the NES website

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The BDNG proudly supports Skin Deep.

Skin Deep is led by the international medical education team, Don’t Forget the Bubbles (DFTB) and the Royal London Hospital (RLH). The aim is to develop a free, open-access bank of high-quality photographs of medical conditions in a range of skin tones for use by both healthcare professionals and the public. The team behind Skin Deep hopes that with time, this will improve education and recognition of conditions in all skin tones, reducing inequalities and improving patient care by ensuring that all children receive a timely diagnosis regardless of their skin colour. Visit the website,  follow on Twitter and Instagram

The BDNG has collaborated with the British Association of Dermatologists (BAD) Education Board Nursing Workstream  to develop role descriptors for dermatology nurses alongside a suggested career development guide. More information

This competency document is available to BDNG members. More information