In each issue we investigate a hot topic currently affecting you and your community practice. Here, we look at How community nurses can promote self-care.
In each issue we investigate a hot topic currently affecting you and your community practice. Here, Georgina Ritchie, Ruth Broadhead and Jayne Livesey, all lecturers at the University of Central Lancashire, ask if community nurses have the courage to compress.
In each issue we investigate a hot topic currently affecting you and your community practice.
While regulation is common in many walks of life — health care, the food industry, the building trade, to name but a few — it has become a national hobby to rail against the imposition of standards imposed from above. The phrase ‘health and safety gone mad’ has become common parlance, and is cheerfully bandied about whenever builders are asked to put on a hard-hat, chefs are ordered to wash their hands, or you require a triplicated insurance certificate to put up a shelf in your lounge (the last one is an exaggeration, obviously, but you get the point).
In each issue we investigate a hot topic currently affecting you and your community practice. Here, we ask Can Community nurses take on obesity?
Imagine the scenario. You’ve arranged a special dinner for a group of friends. You’ve bought the food; picked out your ‘good’ cutlery; dressed in your best clothes. You may have even tidied up the bathroom and hidden last week’s washing under the bed. Then, they simply don’t turn up. No phone call or email, they just decide, for whatever reason, not to show. Quite apart from the wasted food and wine and the fact that you’ve spent the afternoon preparing, there’s the knowledge that if you knew they weren’t coming, you could have invited someone else. Annoying doesn’t quite cover it.
Within the community there are a wide variety of services provided by charitable organisations, voluntary services and social services, to support the elderly throughout this difficult season. Working on the frontline, I feel a real issue is professionals actually being aware of the services available. Community nurses are ideally placed to advise, refer and encourage the use of the valuable support networks available. Thus, the key is being familiar and knowledgeable about all your local services to facilitate their use and help the most vulnerable at this time of year.
