I'm writing this as I watch live TV pictures of yet more carnage from a European city — Paris, London, Madrid and now Brussels — cities that it was tempting to believe were immune from the kind of violence seen across other parts of the world.
The rolling news reports list the many people dead and injured and apart from the obvious tragedy and misery, it reminds me that when it comes to essential services such as police, firemen and women, paramedics, and doctors and nurses, many of the general public go about their everyday lives without paying them much notice. That is until we need them. It is important to remember that when debate rages about what kind of health service we want, who will be eligible to use it and how it will be paid for, that here in the UK when tragedy or illness strike we do not need to worry about insurance payments or finding a good hospital or whether there is enough medicine and equipment to go around. It is just there — delivered without question. At times like these, that is a luxury that needs to be cherished and protected at all costs.
Stress busters
The fact that community nurses are being asked to take care of an ever-more diverse range of patients and conditions as primary care takes centre stage, raises the spectre of workplace stress. In our feature, ’ Do you pass the nursing “stress test?”’ (p. 10) Angela Hall looks at the rise of stress among community nurses and spells out some strategies for making sure that you don’t burnout on the job. This issue is also packed with useful clinical content, including a look at wound care and the management of exudate (p. 32); the effect of vulval skin diseases on women’s quality of life (p. 40); an ‘hour-a-day’ project aimed at streamlining continence services (p. 45); and, as winter gives way to spring, how to deal with hayfever (p. 54).
Perhaps one of the most important developments in nurse regulation in the recent past has been revalidation. A lot of you may be feeling anxious about how to collect and keep track of all of your practice hours and reflection. Luckily, we’ve thought of the answer. JCN’s new revalidation e-portfolio is now live (www.jcn.co.uk/revalidation), providing a really easy-to-use way of collating all your ongoing CPD. And it’s completely free for JCN readers.
Jason Beckford-Ball, editor, JCN
If you would like to comment on any of the articles in JCN, or indeed have ideas of your own for an article, please contact jason@jcn.co.uk