Oral conditions in the community patient: part 2—systemic complications of poor oral health

The oral cavity acts as a focal point for the interaction of the body with the external environment, with its key functions including mastication, taste, speech and swallowing (Kane, 2017). Alteration...

Skin infections in older adults

Hahnel et al (2017) investigated the prevalence of skin diseases in older nursing home residents while also exploring the possible associations of these with demographic and medical characteristics....

Medication adherence: understanding the issues and finding solutions

Adherence is defined as the extent to which the individual's behaviour or actions match the recommendations agreed with their health professional (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence...

Collaboration between a tertiary pain centre and community teams during the pandemic

The mean age of the patients at the pain centre was 58 years and about 50% had three or more comorbidities, placing them at a higher risk of morbidity and mortality from COVID-19. Approximately 30%...

Oral conditions in the community patient: part 1

Oral health has a symbiotic relationship with many chronic systemic diseases, including diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Poor oral health can exacerbate existing underlying disease by contributing...

Management of autonomic dysreflexia in the community

When a person sustains a spinal cord injury (Figure 1), all autonomic nerve function below the injury stops (Norris, 2020). Essentially, AD is caused by a disruption to the autonomic nervous system at...

Patients transferring from hospital care

The records that are kept of a patient's health and progress are central to the process of ongoing care. Records should not only be written in clear language but should also be expressed in such a way...

Interventions for hand eczema

The primary objective of the review summarised here (Christoffers et al, 2019) was to assess the efficacy of topical and systemic interventions for hand eczema in adults and children..

Communicating with people with hearing loss and dementia during the pandemic: personal account

Managing incontinence in people with dementia

Urinary incontinence can be classified into seven types (Bardsley, 2016), as follows:.

Eczema and the older person

Certain factors accelerate skin ageing. The skin is easily damaged by ultraviolet light, and excessive sun exposure can cause dryness, irregular pigmentation, loss of collagen and deep wrinkling....

Exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation for adults with implantable cardioverter defibrillators

The purpose of Nielsen et al's review (2019) was to evaluate the benefits and harms of exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation programmes, delivered alone or in combination with psychoeducation...