Back to basics: communication in palliative care

The skill of maintaining silence with patients involves the use of purposeful silent periods to enable the patient to divulge more information about their emotional state. Although these periods of...

Can integrated care deliver?

‘Integrated care, with collaborative working between and across health and social care services, was seen as the panacea to achieve improved outcomes and care quality, avoid unnecessary admissions...

Valuing the district nursing workforce

Making waves: nurse-led urgent community response

A question arises: are we creating new services, rather than building on existing community health care?.

Proactive care for frailty

The impact of COVID-19 on practice learning in nurse education

During the first months of the pandemic, the priority was healthcare delivery. Registered nurses and midwives on full-time programmes, such as the district nurse specialist practice qualification (DN...

The changing context of advanced practice nursing within the UK community care setting

The NHS Long Term Plan (NHS England, 2019) highlights how advanced clinical practice is central to helping transform service delivery and better meet local health needs by providing enhanced capacity,...

Before I Die: death positivity and the community nursing contribution

The founders and core working group of Before I Die: Worcestershire are a variety of professionals: a GP, a nurse, an arts leader and an end-of-life doula. Their goal was to enable positive communal...

Faecal incontinence and dementia

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) (2007) clearly set out guidance for all health professionals who are managing a patient with faecal incontinence. The guidance states that...

Intravenous diuretic administration in the home environment

Chronic heart failure (CHF) is a condition associated with ageing (Waterhouse, 2014). Heart failure affects approximately, 1-2% of the adult population, raising to 70% of the adult population over 70...

The factors influencing community nurses' usage of electronic health records: findings from focus groups

A qualitative research design using focus groups for data collection was used to enable participants to explore their lived experience (Creswell, 2009; Braun and Clarke, 2013)..

Focus on the patient: applying the essentials of palliative care

With so many demands and challenges encountered, it is probably easy to forget why we provide palliative and end-of-life care. A timely reminder was offered to always start by focusing on the patient....

Coming to terms with loss

‘Widowers and widows desired support to achieve inclusion and togetherness while being reluctant to ask for help, which suggests that both community nurses and families can help identify those who...

First-ever 2-hour community crisis response service

Dressings and dignity in community nursing

Community nursing is not appreciated outside the professional group (Drew, 2011); therefore, this study adopted an ethnographic methodology, because it offered potential for community nursing culture...