My community Resources

My first experience of working in a prison was delivering rehabilitation programmes and I left this post to undertake my nurse training. After spending several years working in acute hospitals and community drug and alcohol services, a post for an advanced clinical practitioner came up in a prison. The job description really appealed to me with being able to work across the four pillars of advanced practice, and having worked in a prison environment previously, I thought it would be a good opportunity to expand and  develop my skills further.

In December 2017, I started working at Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals as one of two new community diabetes specialist nurses (CDSN). It was a new role working within an already specialist service implementing the diabetes model of seamless care. The role worked alongside primary care colleagues to review tier 2 and complex diabetes patients in GP surgeries at face-to-face appointments with the aim of reducing complications.

I qualified as a nurse in New Zealand, and first worked in the community as an agency nurse in Southwest London in 1992 while doing my OE (overseas experience), and I have been in the primary care sector ever since. I started as a community nurse before becoming a district nurse team leader and then in 1998 a tissue viability nurse (TVN). I’ve continued to work as a wound specialist nurse and am still ‘overseas’, but now in Aarhus, Denmark, where I’ve been the last 15 years. Today, I work in a team of four wound specialist nurses tasked with improving wound management for patients in a variety of community settings.

During my 20-year career as a registered nurse, I have worked in a variety of settings, including district nursing, hospice and secondary care. I have always loved being able to care for patients at the end of life and personally, I have experienced several bereavements of close family members. My own experiences have made me passionate about ensuring we deliver the best care possible for our patients and families in the last year of life and into bereavement.

In this article, Maria Hughes discusses her unique nursing role working alongside the North Wales Police.

I have worked in and out of community nursing since qualifying as an adult nurse 12 years ago. Although I have worked alongside a diverse range of community services, including district nursing, specialist long-term condition services and rapid response, the last six years have seen my main focus in community intravenous (IV) therapy. More recently, I have been working within the Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre community IV service, where I have worked with an excellent team of eight registered nurses and one healthcare assistant to recreate what is now an established nurse-led IV service, where we are able to provide a wide range of IV therapies to the local population, without the need for hospital attendance.