Crystal Oldman is chief executive of the Queen’s Nursing Institute (QNI).
The QNI has just published its latest report into the Fund for Innovation and Leadership programme that it runs with support from the Burdett Trust for Nursing. The fund is one of the most practical and immediate ways in which we help nurses to develop a wide range of skills, and improve patient care in the community.
Diane Cuff, head of family carers and community wellbeing, Shropshire Rural Community Council, Shrewsbury
Preventing pressure ulcers is essential for both the patient and the NHS, as failing to do so results in considerable pain and discomfort to the individual, delayed discharge, higher treatment costs and the threat of legal action. In this article however, I will consider the costs to the family, in particular the carers, and the key role they play in preventing pressure ulcers within the home. To help illustrate these issues, I have focused on the experiences of one family carer and the questions this case raises for community care and carer support.
Alex Munro is a registered nurse with a background in unscheduled care as a nurse practitioner. He is the co-founder and clinical director of Hallam Medical, the primary care recruitment specialist.
Is it me, or is simply being a nurse becoming more difficult than ever before? What with the pressures of the workplace, constant media coverage and ever-present politics, nurses could be forgiven for forgetting why they chose the profession in the first place.
Jayne Hollinshead, regional project lead, Midlands, Institute of Health Visiting.
The Institute of Health Visiting (iHV) was established as a national charity over two years ago, with the aim of supporting excellence in health visiting by strengthening professional leadership and providing high-quality training and education. The hope is that this will lead to improved health for children, families and communities.
Advances in health care mean a longer life expectancy for many patients, however quality of life has not improved proportionately. Sana Zakaria looks at the pressures to provide health care for a rapidly ageing population living with multiple comorbidities.
By 2018, it is predicted that about three million people will be living with multiple long-term conditions, which will cost the NHS and social care an extra £5 billion (Department of Health [DH], 2012a). Cardiovascular disease is a long-term condition affecting around seven million people in the UK, and is often accompanied by a plethora of other conditions in the ageing population. Cardiovascular disease was responsible for nearly 30% of all deaths in the UK in 2013, and is one of the largest causes of disability in the country (DH, 2013).
With the government looking to cut costs across the healthcare landscape, identifying comparable but cheaper treatment options can help you make savings. Here, Tracey Morgan, clinical nurse specialist tissue viability, takes a look at the facts...
The challenges facing the NHS now and in the future are well publicised, as is the need for significant change if it is to avoid widespread overspend, or decline in the quality of care delivered (NHS England, 2014). The population is ageing and this, coupled with medical and technological advances, means that more people are living for longer with multiple comorbidities such as diabetes, putting increasing strain on NHS budgets (NHS England, 2014).
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?
In each issue of the Journal of Community Nursing we investigate a hot topic currently affecting our readers. Here, Jason Beckford-Ball looks at the public sector pay announcements in the recent budget and asks the question...
Will community nurses ever get a fair deal on pay?
In each issue of JCN we ask a clinical expert to take a look at a therapy area and examine some everyday problems that community nurses may experience. In this issue, we look at venous leg ulceration and associated oedema and ask the question...
How do I reduce foot oedema while healing a leg ulcer?
Leg ulcers and chronic oedema can be complicated to treat, particularly when oedema is present in the the foot and you are trying to apply compression bandaging. We asked Winnie Furlong, the clinical lead for the leg ulcer service, The Princess Alexandra Hospital and West Essex Leg Ulcer Service, to explain the best way to treat venous leg ulceration with associated foot oedema, in response to the implementation of local guidelines.
Wound care forms a major part of any community nurse’s workload and with more acute patients being discharged earlier from hospital, as well as an ever-growing case-load of long-term conditions, it is more important than ever that nurses are confident in assessing and care-planning effective wound care. As ever, accurate assessment of the patient and the wound is the starting point and will help nurses choose the most effective treatment, resulting in improved patient outcomes and reduced costs. Poor wound care can lead to delayed healing, increased infection and inappropriate use of wound dressings, all of which impact on patients’ quality of life. In this article, the author outlines five main steps to consider in providing evidence-based, effective wound care.
