Resources

The impact of COVID-19 has been felt across the UK and continues to be so, even with lockdown measures lifted in many parts of the country. As a specialist nurse at Prostate Cancer UK, we provide information and support to thousands of men living with and concerned about prostate cancer. We have heard many stories of the amazing measures that have been put in place by healthcare professionals to ensure appropriate access to treatment has continued, and we have also been hearing about the difficult decisions men and their medical teams have had to make around changes or delays to treatment by weighing up the risk of Covid-19 infection and the risk of their disease progression.

We are living through a global pandemic, which has affected us all. It has changed the way we work and think. In the midst of this awful experience, a deeply sad picture is emerging - that BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) people and communities are being massively hit by Covid-19, and a BAME person is more likely to die from Covid-19 (Public Health England [PHE], 2020).

There is no question that healthcare professionals have been at the forefront of bearing the physical and emotional labour when it comes to dealing with the enormity of the Covid-19 pandemic. Many have been managing daily work routines and home life throughout these incredibly challenging times. A great many families have also been juggling the demands of caring for children, as well as becoming home school educators. For some, there has been the additional tasks of meeting the needs of their elderly relatives ‘shielding’ in these unprecedented times.

A diagnosis of heart failure does not come easy — in more ways than one. For many, it is a long and convoluted road. And when you finally get clear answers, it hits you like a train from left field. This happened to me at the age of just 39, when I was diagnosed with heart failure caused by viral myocarditis.

Being awarded the Queen’s Nurse title is a great honour and one I would not have received if I had given up general practice nursing three and a half years ago.

We have to remember that life is a journey and not a destination, which is why I think I was ready to give up and have a change of career. A chance meeting with an army reservist at our annual CPR update changed the course of my nursing journey, but not where I thought I would end up.

Here, Jaqui Walker, chats about how experience has taught her to stop and think when something just doesn’t feel quite right.

Chronic wounds create poor health (e.g. infection and immobility) and personal issues for patients (e.g. malodour, pain and sleepless nights), as well as substantial costs to healthcare systems (Guest et al, 2017; Atkin et al, 2019). They present many clinical challenges, but two key areas are wound bed preparation and exudate management (Atkin et al, 2019), which are intrinsically linked. A chronic or cavity wound bed which has not been prepared for healing through cleansing and debridement (Mahoney, 2020), containing slough, necrotic tissue or wound biofilm, usually produces a high volume of exudate (World Union of Wound Healing Societies [WUWHS], 2019).