The known unknowns of assisted hydration at the end of life

Another factor contributing to the widespread variability in practice is the uncertainty about its impact. A recent systematic review of 15 studies found insufficient evidence to draw conclusions...

What's in a name?

The challenge of infection control in patients' homes

Effective hand hygiene remains one of the cornerstones of good infection control. Since its conception in 1979, the, originally six-, now seven-stage, handwashing technique (World Health Organization...

End-of-life care: perspective of a relative rather than a professional

The call came at midnight on Good Friday 2020: my relative, anonymised to Jim, experienced a sudden acute event and called 999 and then me, as the family nurse. I arrived to find an ambulance crew...

Challenges and complexities of discharge planning from a district nursing perspective

The Queen's Nursing Institute (QNI) (2013) reported that previous acute care only delivered in the hospital is now being offered by DNs. In concordance with this, NHS England (2015) acknowledged the...

Diabetes education to provide the necessary self-management skills

Self-care in diabetes involves the development of knowledge and awareness by learning to live with the complex nature of the condition in a social context. The national service framework for diabetes,...

Retaining the best

‘… it will be especially important to maintain consistent public health messaging about the personal and societal value of COVID-19 and influenza vaccinations and other protective measures'. .

Impact of technology on community nursing during the pandemic

In community nursing, a strong emphasis has been placed on the use of telephone triage followed by video assessment to reduce exposure to staff and patients, further preventing an increase in the...

A mirror image: experiences of informal carers caring for frail, older persons at risk from falling

The findings are presented as verbatim quotes used to illustrate each theme with pseudonyms assigned to each informal carer..

Aerosol-generating procedures in home care

COVID-19 is a novel, or new, coronavirus (World Health Organization (WHO), 2020). Coronaviruses are named after the crown-like spikes that cover their surface (Centers for Disease Control, 2019), and...

An overview of enteral feeding in the community

Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) tubes are used for enteral feeding. These are long-term, artificial enteral feeding tubes suitable for adults and children that require endoscopic placement,...

Carer and staff perceptions of end-of-life care provision: case of a hospice-at-home service

The evaluation was carried out between July and December 2016, using a mixed-methods approach (Creswell and Creswell, 2018). This paper presents the qualitative findings from family carer and staff...