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

Wound care specialist and NHS supplier, Daylong Direct, is introducing the world’s first adhesive-free, wearable wound care solution specifically designed for people living with hidradenitis suppurativa (HS), HidraWear, to the UK.

Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a chronic, inflammatory skin disease that causes recurrent and painful nodules, boils, abscesses and lesions of the skin (Revuz, 2009). This recurrent and often painful disease is frequently overlooked and can have a profound impact on a patient’s quality of life (Matusiak, 2018).

The founder of HidraWear, Suzanne Moloney, has been living with HS for decades. She and her team have successfully listed HidraWear for reimbursement through the public health service in Ireland, making it the first country in the world to make HS specific dressings available through its public health provision. She is now working with Daylong Direct towards making HidraWear available for patients on prescriptions in the UK. Here, she talks about the difficult journey to getting her diagnosis, the daily struggles of living with HS, and the importance of raising awareness of the condition.

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.

One in five people in the UK has asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or another longterm respiratory illness. Half of them are currently on treatment (mainly inhalers) for lung disease and they account for more than 700,000 hospital admissions in the UK each year (British Lung Foundation [BLF], 2021). Positive images of adults, children and young people using inhalers correctly will go a long way to help improve the care and outcomes for the population.

All too often patients subjected to radiotherapy (RT) will develop skin burns. These are accepted by many clinicians as being an unfortunate sequel of a lifesaving treatment; however, evidence is beginning to show that they need not be regarded as ‘inevitable’ (Bray et al, 2016). There are treatment options which can help avoid, or ameliorate them that merit consideration. After specialist RT centre treatment, skin burns become the responsibility of the community nurse to address. They can cause serious reduction in patient quality of life, or even delay further radiotherapy owing to pain and exudation (Singh et al, 2016).

The Queen’s Nursing Institute (QNI) is one of a number of charities that will receive additional support from the Covid-19 Healthcare Support Appeal (CHSA) this year. The funding allocated to the QNI will be used to support community nurses in financial need over the next 12 months. The new money from CHSA is specifically for nurses whose financial circumstances have been impacted by the pandemic and is one of several initiatives it is supporting across the voluntary sector.