Covid-19 Resources

This article, the first in a three-part series on Long Covid, provides a definition of post-Covid-19 syndrome and Long Covid. It highlights the considerations for diagnosis and an overview of the management of commonly reported symptoms through the experience of one of the 90 NHS England commissioned post Covid (Long Covid) assessment clinics, in addition to lived experiences of persons with Long Covid (PwLC). The next two articles in this series will look at the use of digital technology in Long Covid self-management and virtual group assessments.

Deconditioning is a term used to describe the physical decline a person might experience following a period of inactivity. It has long been recognised, but has previously been associated with prolonged periods of immobility or hospitalisation resulting from injury or illness. As we come out of the Covid-19 pandemic and the associated periods of lockdown and shielding the more vulnerable, there is evidence that some of the population are suffering the effects of deconditioning. It is apparent that this may be with or without coexisting medical conditions and needs to be considered as an additional or stand-alone diagnosis where symptoms exist, or where worsening of an underlying medical condition could be as a result of deconditioning. This article considers the causes and effects of deconditioning, its impact on physical and mental health, and how we can approach reconditioning programmes through health and society.

n each issue of the Journal of Community Nursing, we investigate a topic currently affecting our readers. Here, Kate Upton, representative for Nursing Professions on the Crisis, Disaster and Trauma Psychology Section of the British Psychological Society, looks at "Recognising compassion fatigue and protecting wellbeing".

Since the first patient in the UK was diagnosed with Covid-19 on the 31st January 2020, the last 18 months have been unlike any we have experienced in our lifetime. The impact of the pandemic has been dramatic, turning our lives upside down and changing them beyond recognition — and not least for community nurses, like yourselves.

With the presence of Covid-19, community nurses not only had to deal with pre-existing concerns (many of which have been exasperated by the virus), but also with new challenges and pressures. Having to battle a shared enemy that appears to thrive on hiding in plain sight, many of you will have been thrust into having to operate outside of your comfort zone and in environments where you may have felt a loss of control.You will have experienced a huge shift in the way you carry out your work, having been pushed into being more open- minded and creative in managing workloads, as well as having to rapidly adapt to ever evolving new ways of providing patient care. For some, you may also have been redeployed to roles where you have needed to make use of new or rarely used skills. And, of course, underlying all of this, there is the understandable additional concern of contracting the virus and passing it on to others.

There are currently 15 million people in England who have a longterm condition, which is defined as one which currently has no cure other than drugs and symptomatic management (Bennett et al, 2012). At present, the UK population is affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, and those with a long-term condition have been advised to selfisolate to prevent being infected by the virus (Department of Health [DH], 2020). This paper explores some of the effects of stress and anxiety with reference to Covid-19, as well as how the pandemic has affected the community nurse’s role.

The nutritional consequences of Covid-19 are not yet fully understood, but knowledge from acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) suggests that patients are likely to experience skeletal muscle dysfunction, which can persist for weeks to years (Files et al, 2015) and impede return to pre-illness status. Many of the signs and symptoms noted to frequently persist after acute Covid infection, such as breathlessness, fatigue, loss of smell and taste and inflammation, can impact oral intake and potentially worsen nutritional status (Arnold et al, 2020; Carfi et al, 2020; Doykov et al, 2020; Mandal et al, 2020; Sudre et al, 2020).

With the mass Covid-19 vaccination roll-out beginning in earnest, JCN talks to Simon Browes about the challenges facing his vaccination programme team.

Here, Pauline MacDonald, independent consultant nurse; managing director, Infection Matters, talks about the COVID-19 vaccination programme, with some useful information to help community nurses feel confident and competent to discuss vaccination with their patients, relatives, friends and colleagues.

In each issue we investigate a hot topic currently affecting you and your community
practice. Here, we ask... how can community nurses support carers?