The majority of people express a wish to be cared for at home with the right support, but figures show that many are admitted to hospital in crisis and spend a significant amount of time in hospital in their last year. Plus, many more people die in hospital than really want to.
People experiencing homelessness are among the most vulnerable and marginalised groups in our society. There is no such thing as an average or normal homeless person — they are all unique with their own strengths, hopes, backgrounds, feelings and motivations and all have a unique story to tell about their route into homelessness. Most also have a vision of a life out of homelessness. Just as these personal stories differ, so too do the health conditions experienced by homeless people.
JCN talks to those working in the community.
Helen Brewah is a community matron in Hampshire
In each issue of the Journal of Community Nursing we investigate a hot topic currently affecting our readers. In this issue, as recent publicity focuses on the true extent of district nurse numbers in the UK, JCN asks the question...
Call me oldfashioned, but when I heard that a missed penalty in the recent World Cup game between Chile and Brazil triggered 389,000 single tweets in one minute, I did question whatever happened to having a nice halftime cup of tea? But then I began to wonder — if Twitter can generate that much ‘noise’ over a football match, what could it do for issues that really matter, like community nursing, good patient care, or the future of the NHS?
With reference to the JCN’s editorial on the ‘ticking public health time bomb’ and the role of nurses in tackling unhealthy lifestyles (www.jcn.co.uk/journal/04-2014), our research investigated the effect of professional football clubs in delivering health improvement in a traditionally hard-to reach but huge population — namely, men (Pringle et al, 2014).
Summer just seems to have got underway, but already practice nurses and GPs across the UK are dreading the onset of autumn as it can only mean one thing — flu vaccination. Flu vaccinations, and the associated clinics set up to deliver them, undoubtedly increase the already busy workload of practice nurses, however, they do represent a valuable service to all those who are eligible.
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.
The relationship between smoking and respiratory disease has long been established and smoking is recognised as a risk factor for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) (Fletcher and Peto, 1977), lung cancer (Doll et al, 2004) and interstitial lung diseases (Bradley et al, 2008), as well as contributing to the symptoms of asthma (Siroux et al, 2000). However, when working with patients who have lived with their disease for some time, or who may feel it is too late to benefit from change, it is important to do more than simply reiterate the risks. The link between continued smoking, progression of respiratory disease, exacerbation of the condition and the detrimental effects of continued smoking on the efficacy of some treatments should also be communicated. This article looks at the risks of smoking, as well as providing guidance for community nurses on how to bring up the topic with their patients in a non-confrontational manner.
Many community nurses will have encountered atopic eczema, a widespread skin condition resulting in itchy, red, dry and cracked skin and which has a serious effect on patients’ quality of life. When atopic eczema becomes infected with Staphylococcus aureus, however, these symptoms can intensify, resulting in outbreaks of folliculitis and widespread infected eczematous lesions. These can be painful and distressing and community nurses need to be aware of the symptoms and treatments in order to deal with the problem themselves or refer on. This article looks at the background to infected atopic eczema as well as the main treatments, including oral antibiotics, antiseptics, combination topical therapies and good hygiene.
