Here, Teresa Burdett, senior lecturer in integrated health care; professional lead for interprofessional learning and education, unit lead for foundations of integrated care and person-centred services, and Lee-Ann Fenge, professor in social care, both from Bournemouth University, explore the rhetoric and reality of the NHS Long Term Plan (NHS England, 2019a) and examine some of the challenges highlighted by the NHS Interim People Plan (NHS England, 2019b), which sets out a game plan for delivery to NHS employees.
Here, Ellie Lindsay OBE, independent specialist practitioner, associate lecturer, CRICP, London and visiting fellow, Queensland University of Technology, and Laura Talbot, clinical audit consultant for the Lindsay Leg Club Foundation, discuss why effective communication is important in clinical practice to help improve the quality of life for individuals living with a PICC line in situ. This feature also recounts Ellie Lindsay’s own personal experience of watching her husband undergo a period of intense cancer treatment, and the difference made by the communication skills and teamwork of healthcare professionals involved once in the correct haematology unit.
Here, a focus group of tissue viability specialists (Box 1) look at the GIRFT programme and how by working together, clinicians and industry can help to prevent variations in wound care.
Here, Professor Ann Hemingway, Public Health and Wellbeing, Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, Bournemouth University and Joanne Bosanquet, Deputy Chief Nurse, Public Health England and Visiting Professor, University of Surrey, explain how nurses must be prepared for their roles as advocates and seek to have influence over local policies which impact on health and the design of healthcare services.