Wound care: meeting current and future challenges

The Queen dies: lessons beyond palliative care

Whether expected or not, death often provokes grief in those left behind. Grief is a normal reaction to a painful loss; in this case, it is the family of the Queen who will inevitably experience it...

What is new in intermittent self-catherisation?

Pickard et al (2018) examined antibiotic prophylaxis in intermittent self-catheterisation, noting that people carrying out clean intermittent self-catheterisation (CISC) in order to void their...

Family dynamics and caring for older people

A rapid decision may be needed, for example, if the person's home is no longer suitable due to mobility issues after a hip fracture, and the hospital is pressing for discharge. The family may have...

Moving with technological advancements: blood glucose monitoring from a district nurse's perspective

The testing of glucose levels is an important intervention. The test results help to determine the best type and dose to be titrated (Gordon, 2019), giving the best results for glycaemic control and...

The challenges homeless people face when accessing end-of-life care: what district nurses need to know

Homelessness is often thought of as ‘rough sleeping’, yet a wider definition is generally used that HCPs should be aware of. Crisis (2022a) defines homelessness as:.

Red legs: how to differentiate between cellulitis, venous eczema and lipodermatosclerosis

Cellulitis is an acute infection of the dermal and subcutaneous layers of the skin, often occurring after a local skin trauma (Bailey and Kroshinsky, 2011)..

Skin tear prevention in older adults

Campbell et al (2018) state that many of the misunderstandings or misdiagnoses surrounding skin tears have resulted from a more specific terminology, classifying them as wounds. Such misdiagnoses...

10 years of raising awareness of disease-related malnutrition

The importance of safety

‘The experience of fraud can have a major impact upon an older person, not only due to the financial loss, but also through the sense of shame and embarrassment and consequent anxiety which may...

Blood pressure age ranges for community patient care

Progress in palliative care: serious illness conversations for community nurses

How can a person-centred approach to occupational therapy practice in the community enhance independence for people living with complex neurological presentations?

Neurological long-term conditions refer to a group of neurological disorders with varying life expectancies, which show gradual deterioration, ultimately leading to death (NHS England, 2019)....

Facilitating healthy deaths at scale

‘I could never have imagined how difficult the position of caregiver at end-of-life would be and…. the stress on us as a family cannot be overstated’. .

Type 2 diabetes: an update for community nurses

Diabetes is a chronic, metabolic disease characterised by elevated levels of blood glucose (or blood sugar), which over time, can lead to serious damage to the heart, blood vessels, eyes, kidneys and...