In each issue we investigate a hot topic currently affecting you and your community practice. Here, Alison Hopkins MBE, chief executive, Accelerate, explores - Why optimising therapeutic compression is essential.
Tabloids in recent years have indicated that the older generation are becoming a burden on society, citing cost of pensions, social care and the older person having the potential to overwhelm the NHS system. For many young people, the retirement generation evokes images of inactive older people. Yet, many seniors are living longer and enjoying better health into their later years, with retirement becoming an extremely active phase of life.
Current Covid restrictions have forced many healthcare professionals to embrace technology and work in very different ways. Indeed, the traditional telephone has allowed the Newcastle continence service to provide a service to patients referred with all types of urinary incontinence. But, is it even possible to assess someone’s continence and devise a treatment plan over the telephone?
It is estimated that one in 12 children and young people in the UK suffer with a wetting or soiling problem, which can have a devastating impact on their family life, social life and self-esteem (NHS Modernisation Agency, 2003). Afraid of wetting themselves in class or on a school trip; too many children and teenagers are missing out on sleepovers and camping trips, being bullied and constantly trying to hide the signs of their ‘secret’.
Few healthcare professionals, if any, cannot be unaware of sepsis and its clinical consequences. Publicity surrounding sepsis, initiated in no small way by the UK Sepsis Trust (sepsistrust. org), has used the shocking data on morbidity and mortality to bring a closer focus on the problem. This brief editorial review is aimed at providing an essential introduction to the basics of recognition and the urgent actions related to suspicion of sepsis, and some of the essential links to resources and guidelines aimed at early detection. A subsequent article will cover the lived experience of recovering patients post-sepsis in an attempt to highlight the pressing ongoing social and healthcare needs.
Food fatigue is a psychological condition which results in lack of motivation or enthusiasm to consume food. Left untreated, this can lead to malnutrition, lack of energy and dehydration. In a bid to alleviate food fatigue for customers, including those individuals who may have been clinically shielded or especially vulnerable through the Covid-19 pandemic, home meals delivery company, Wiltshire Farm Foods, has collaborated with leading chefs in the South West and launched a new and inspirational summer kitchen range giving added variety, freshness and choice.
Now more than ever, the NHS is searching for ways to reduce wastage and achieve efficiency savings, while at the same time improving patient outcomes. One area which can sometimes be overlooked when it comes to innovation and new ways of working is wound care.
This year has presented greater challenges to community and district nurse education than ever before. Within higher education institutions, we have certainly felt the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic in a variety of ways, but I am proud to say that within my own university, the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan), we made the switch to online teaching with consummate ease and have continued to provide teaching and learning support for our precious students throughout the lock down. But, for some lecturers within our faculty, continuing the ‘business unusual’ approach to teaching and learning was also accompanied by a personal drive to return to the front line of NHS care. With the support of our school leadership, I am proud to say that within my own team of family community and public health specialists, more than 75% of us were able to offer support to front line colleagues in a variety of forms.
Chronic wounds create poor health (e.g. infection and immobility) and personal issues for patients (e.g. malodour, pain and sleepless nights), as well as substantial costs to healthcare systems (Guest et al, 2017; Atkin et al, 2019). They present many clinical challenges, but two key areas are wound bed preparation and exudate management (Atkin et al, 2019), which are intrinsically linked. A chronic or cavity wound bed which has not been prepared for healing through cleansing and debridement (Mahoney, 2020), containing slough, necrotic tissue or wound biofilm, usually produces a high volume of exudate (World Union of Wound Healing Societies [WUWHS], 2019).
The new JCN clinical skills series looks at dif ferent aspects of wound management in the community, with useful tips on patient care and improving practice. The third part gives a practical overview of identifying and managing wound infection.
