Kathryn Evans gives her views on what needs to be done to provide high value wound care.
I have always been passionate about wound care and, as a practising district nurse, I learnt by experience and training to measure wounds, take photographs and undertake Doppler assessments (a noninvasive method to identify arterial insufficiency in the leg). This helped me to establish the treatment that each wound needed.
What I did not know was the effectiveness of my prescribed care and how my healing rates compared with another nurse’s care. I also could not say with any accuracy how quickly a patient could expect their wound to heal. I wish I had known…
So, my questions to you would be: Do you know? And, why is it important?
Anne Moger gives her views on the new national framework.
Professor Jane Cummings, Chief Nursing Officer for England, officially launched Leading Change, Adding Value: a framework for nursing, midwifery and care staff on 18 May 2016. The event was held in London and live streamed, and with 1,200 devices linked in and connections through Twitter using the hashtag #Lead2Add the estimated reach to people participating globally was over 3.5million.
The framework follows the success of Compassion in Practice (NHS England, 2012) and positions all nursing, midwifery and care staff as leaders who will shape the actions needed to meet the challenges of today and the changing health and care landscape of the future. One of the great legacies created through Compassion in Practice is the 6Cs, and these will remain the foundation of our value base and central to reducing unwarranted variation.
Whichever newspaper you read or news channel you tune into, there’s a fair chance that it will at some time have featured a forthright word or two from the respected National Obesity Forum [NOF] on the government’s inaction over obesity. Forum members, like you, witness the ravages of excess weight daily in their surgeries and clinics with a growing sense of frustration. But, how does the NOF get its position covered?
The Journal of General Practice Nursing asked Tam Fry, for 12 years the Forum’s spokesman, to explain.
Anne Moger gives her views on the current opportunities for general practice nurses.
Never has the spotlight on general practice nursing shone so brightly. Some may see this as an uncomfortable position to be in, and, in some ways, as part of the nursing family that sits outside the wider NHS family employed by independent contractors, it is. However, there is always a flip side, and the spotlight, if focused appropriately, will also be a guiding light, helping the profession to move forwards in line with the Five Year Forward View (5YFV) (NHS England, 2014).
Success!