Recent research into chronic and non-healing wounds has helped increase our knowledge and understanding of the destructive processes that occur in wounds. Advanced dressings, such as protease-modulating dressings, have been developed to reduce the effects of these processes and re-establish a molecular balance in the wound bed. To use these dressings accurately, nurses need to understand the events that occur at a molecular level in the wound bed and the phases of wound healing so that they can act appropriately if a wound becomes ‘stuck’ in one of these phases.