Appetite for the district nursing programme in September 2022

Lymphoedema in the community

The first-line of treatment involves using compression of some kind. This may be compression hosiery (which the patient must be appropriately measured for), to complex massage (a drainage technique...

Growing old in the UK

‘Community nurses should encourage older people to access healthcare when needed and support the re-establishment of normal behaviours to mitigate the risks of social isolation and loneliness so...

Being the asset in palliative care

Community nurses (CN) in charge of providing palliative and end of life care are central to the quality of care provided, and by extension, the dignity in death afforded to these people. When viewed...

Supporting resilience in older people: implications for nursing practice

Resilience has been defined as a noun and a process. When defined as a process, it has been referred to as dynamic, changing over the course of one's lifetime and in response to the specific context...

Achieving congruence in ‘being and doing’ community nursing

The author's doctoral work revealed two aspects of the DN role: the clinical expertise and the leadership/management aspects, impacting the ability to be person-centred (Dickson et al, 2018; 2020)....

Developing a clinical care pathway to reduce and treat enteric feeding tube site skin excoriation: a quality-improvement pilot study

In our organisation, the average yearly enteric tube insertions, patient assessments, and amount of specialist nursing hours for enteral site skin excoriation have been increasing. The estimated...

Catheter valves: are they useful in supporting patients in a trial without catheter?

Typically, urinary catheterisation is used to manage retention, but it is important to note that patients may also require catheterisation for a variety of other reasons (Royal College of Nursing,...

The role of the community nurse in population health management

Two community nurse fellows under the Chief Nursing Officer, England, have been tasked with expanding the role of community nurses in population health management, focusing on two outcomes:.

Sustainability and healthcare

Does primary care need reform?

‘In England, there are 6 million people waiting for NHS care, including specialist mental health care, and referral to treatment waiting times are growing ever longer, with 63% of patients waiting...

Treatment of urge incontinence in women

This type of urinary incontinence may be caused by changes in anatomical support and/or neuromuscular function of the pelvic floor, or it may be idiopathic (BMJ, 2020). There is a high incidence of...

Does availability of point of care C-reactive protein measurement affect provision of antibiotics in a community respiratory service?

The primary outcome measured was antibiotic use for treatment of an acute exacerbation following a comprehensive respiratory clinical assessment, in both COPD and bronchiectasis, for those with a POC...

The role of the district nurse in screening and assessment for frailty

Working as a student district nurse, current practice is to use the Rockwood et al (2005) frailty screening tool as part of the initial assessment. Assessment is a key element in the nursing process...

The prevalence of comorbidity in rheumatoid arthritis: a systematic review and meta-analysis

This systematic review aimed to estimate the prevalence rate of a range of comorbidities in adults with RA and to assess the moderating factors of country, age and a study's risk of bias..