NMC Resources

An extremely important issue for all healthcare professionals working within the community is the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s (NMC’s) review of post-registration qualifications in specialist community and public health nursing. This issue’s ‘community matters’ piece gives you all the information you need to have your say on the potential changes (pp. 8–10). Please take the time to read the article and voice your views.

Burnout, mental health, stress, anxiety and depression are words which are constantly being associated with health and social care professionals as a result of the burden of the pandemic. So, it is encouraging to learn how Help for Heroes, which is all too familiar with the emotional toll that any traumatic event can cause as a result of working with veterans and their families, has drawn on its experience and knowledge to develop free resources to support healthcare professionals and their families during these difficult times (p. 18). Rona Dury also offers some useful insight into the impact of stress and anxiety in relation to Covid-19 and how the pandemic has affected the role of community nursing (pp. 62–65).

With cancer survival rates increasing and the disease being more and more seen as a long-term condition, community nurses inevitably play a crucial role in caring for patients living with cancer in their own homes. Education is thus vital, as the findings from a pilot project offering bespoke education on cancer to community nurses show, as well as how developing expertise in this area can better help us support vulnerable housebound patients with complex care needs (pp. 56–60).

I also urge you to read Sara Nelson’s editorial about the #RightInhalerImage campaign and get involved and support this social movement for change to ensure that those with respiratory conditions get the right treatment, in the right way, and at the right time (pp. 12–13).

As always, I hope you enjoy reading this issue. If you have any ideas for articles, please get in touch, as it is always great to hear from our readers. And remember, the JCN Facebook Live events are continuing throughout 2021, so look out for what is coming next — www.jcn.co.uk/events/series/facebook-live.

Annette Bades, editor-in-chief, JCN

In each issue we investigate a hot topic affecting you and your community practice. Here, Geraldine Walters CBE (left), executive director of professional practice, Nursing and Midwifery Council and Heather Bain ( right), academic strategic lead, academic programmes for Robert Gordon University and district nurse educator look at what the NMC post-registration qualifications consultation means for community nursing.

Plenty of scare stories surrounded the NMC’s release of its new revalidation requirements, with anything from excessive practice hours and patient feedback making many nurses uneasy about their future registration. Here, Alex Munro takes a look at the facts...

As a nurse or midwife, you will no doubt be aware of the impending changes to the way that you will have to renew your professional registration with the NMC. So what are the changes and what will they mean for you?

Following on from the ‘Community matters’ feature in the last issue of JCN (28[3]: pp. 8–9), Katerina Kolyva from the NMC has been in touch to clarify its position over patient involvement in the new
code of conduct.