Community Matters Resources

One of the cornerstones of nursing practice is teamwork. Academics and practice guidelines never tire of reminding nurses of the importance of effective communication skills, multidisciplinary working and group reflection. And that’s without the regular social activities that go handin-hand with working in a busy healthcare team — birthday drinks,
leaving dos and retirement parties.

Whenever scientists try and imagine what the future will look like, they invariably get a little carried away. If past predictions were anything to go by, by this point in the 21st century we should all be whizzing about in driverless cars, feasting on laboratory grown meat and living to improbable ages, our life expectancy artificially extended by stem-cell implants.

For the general public, community staff such as district nurses and health visitors are in danger of becoming a fond memory, much like those other pillars of society we didn’t know
we needed until they were gone — neighbourhood policeman say, or a functioning post office.

For most people, workplace ethical dilemmas involve relatively little soul-searching. Should they tell the boss that they used the company credit card to buy her birthday present on expenses? Is it wise to let their line manager know that he ought to invest in some deodorant? And do they really need to tell HR that Darren from accounts tried to kiss them at the Christmas party?

There have been many renowned leaders throughout history. Alexander the Great. Cleopatra. Winston Churchill. Liz Truss… OK, maybe the last one is a bit of a stretch, but many civilizations have been defined by a single inspirational leader who was able to bend circumstances to their will.

To a much lesser extent, the same is true in any workplace. Someone has to make  decisions and drive strategies or ideas, otherwise nothing would get done. But what is it that makes a great leader? What qualities make people follow one person and not another? 

Most people who work in health care would imagine that they have a basic grasp of the menopause and its main symptoms. They’d probably be able to tell you about hot sweats, anxiety and mood swings. Some of them might even impress you with
their knowledge of period cessation or hormone depletion.

For many women, however, including those working in health care, the realities of
living with menopause are still shrouded in misinformation and embarrassment. Not to mention sexism. Often lumped together under the dismissive term ‘women’s problems’, it’s an often-repeated joke that if men experienced the menopause there would have already been years of well-funded research, a host of treatments, or even a ‘cure’.

As a community nurse, how much information should you know about a patient?
You might say it’s important to know the condition they have and their medical history. It might be reasonable to enquire if they are on any medication, or even ask for some
details about their lifestyle, such as their smoking habits or alcohol consumption, or how many sugars they take in their tea.

As we drift inexorably towards Christmas on a wave of sentimental TV adverts and
last-minute shopping panic, there is one question on everyone’s lips (and no, it is not ‘How did Matt Hancock finish third in the jungle?’).

Despite the medical advances of the past century, modern healthcare services often seem to treat our bodies as a series of unconnected parts, our ailments divided according to arbitrary physical labels. We may see a urologist for our weak bladder, a cardiologist for a malfunctioning heart, and a psychiatrist for any mental health issues. While it makes sense to apportion separate parts of the body to qualified specialists, these divisions can result in an inability among healthcare staff to see the ‘bigger picture’ — or to use modern healthcare terminology, to treat the patient ‘holistically’.

In each issue of the Journal of Community Nursing, we investigate a topic affecting our readers. Here, Teresa Burdett, principal academic in mental health nursing, Bournemouth University, and Anneyce Knight (recently passed away), senior lecturer in adult nursing, Bournemouth University, look at making every contact count to promote health in the community.