The prescribing of medication is by far the most common form of medical intervention. However, it has been shown that up to 50% of medicines are not taken as prescribed, that medication-related problems can occur, and that up to 7% of hospital admissions can be due to adverse drug reactions. A new approach termed 'medicines optimisation' has been developed that is intended to focus attention on outcomes rather than process in relation to improving quality, the benefits, and value patients receive from their use of medicines. This article describes the role that community nurses can play in achieving the ambitions of the medicines optimisation agenda.
In each issue of the Journal of Community Nursing we investigate a hot topic currently affecting our readers. In this issue, as we face an obesity epidemic and growing lifestyle-related conditions such as diabetes, JCN takes a look at the community nurses’ role in health prevention and asks the question...
In the latest in JCN’s series profiling the decision-makers in UK nursing, Jason Beckford-Ball spoke to Jane Cummings, England’s chief nursing officer, about patient-centred care and moving from acute to community services.
Keeping up with your CPD requirements often means attending dull study days in uninspiring classroom blocks. But, it doesn’t have to be that way. Jason Beckford-Ball took a look at a different type of education, where first-class clinical expertise is shared in luxury surroundings, free of charge.
Carers play a huge role in supporting people to live at home. In some cases, they provide around-the-clock care for people who would otherwise need to be admitted to hospital or transferred to a nursing home. Carers are crucial to home and community care and yet there is little awareness of, and support for, the important role that they play.
Alex Munro is a registered nurse, with a background in unscheduled care as a nurse practitioner. He has previously been a director of a private healthcare provider delivering a community admission avoidance service and is the co-founder and clinical director of Hallam Medical, the primary care recruitment specialist.
