Just for a moment …. stop thinking pressure injuries are about pressure.

There is more to it, lack of movement and shear forces are often hidden ignored factors and just as dangerous. Yet most clinical tools are just designed to address pressure, especially during rest.

This session invites you to see the frail body differently, not as soft and resilient, but as a fragile web of layered tissues, vulnerable to not moving and moving alike.

Like a web of spun sugar (candy floss), these structures can be disrupted by instability more than weight.

Using this metaphor, we explore how common handling routines and equipment can unintentionally damage fragile tissue.

We challenge the assumption that slide sheets are only for moving patients and propose that certain designs and practices can act as clinical instruments for reducing stiction, friction, shear and distortion by protecting both the tissue interface (macro) and deeper levels (nano) scale.

• By the end of this session, delegates will be able to:
• 1. Describe how frail tissues respond to pressure, stiction, friction and shear, and why this matters in positioning and handling.
• 2. Recognise the impact of movement, friction, stiction and rest on tissue.
• 3. Evaluate how slide sheets and mattresses can protect or harm, all depending on their properties and use.
• 4. Identify how “comfort” without movement may accelerate decline in frail patients.
• 5. Translate bio-mechanical concepts (like stiction friction and shear) into everyday clinical reasoning and decisions.