Pre-travel consultations can be complex and time-consuming — none more so than those involving a cruise. Cruise travel is a booming industry and approximately two million cruises were taken by UK-based passengers in 2014 (Department of Transport, 2015) and it is estimated that globally 24 million people will take a cruise this year (Cruise Lines International Association [CLIA], 2016).
Cruise ships may carry anything from a few hundred passengers and crew to up to 5,000, and the cruise may last just a couple of days to several months. The trip may involve a long haul flight at either end, a land-based tour at the final destination or a round-trip from the UK. Although the Caribbean and editerranean are the most popular destinations, cruise operators are constantly adding new and varied ports of call. Cruise itineraries can often seem daunting, especially to the busy general practice nurse (GPN) and this article outlines what a pre-travel consultation should include.
Put simply, exudate is the fluid that leaks from the capillaries during the healing process. It helps to create a moist wound environment and assists with healing by removing devitalised tissue, repairing damaged cells and providing nourishment to assist with epithelialisation. Exudate is produced in the initial wound-healing process as part of the inflammation stage.
Exudate is created in response to injury as neutrophils migrate to the wound site and cytokine messengers instruct the surrounding blood vessels to become more porous and leak protein-rich fluid into the wound bed. Exudate is full of nutrients and growth factors and, when produced in the right amount, ensures that there is a moist wound environment, which is essential for timely healing.
In each issue we speak to general practice nurses and ask about their role in primary care. Here, Amanda Brookes, business manager, Bradford on Avon and Melksham Health Partnership, talks about the effect of positive ideas on patients’ lives.
Welcome to GPN’s learning zone. By reading the article in each issue, you can learn all about the key principles of subjects that are vital to your role as a general practice nurse. Once you have read the article, evaluate your knowledge on this topic by answering the 10 questions in the e-learning unit; all answers can be found in the article. If you answer the questions correctly, you can download your certificate which can be used in your continuing professional development (CPD) portfolio as evidence of your continued learning and contribute to your revalidation portfolio.
This article helps to explain how C-reactive protein point-of-care works, and why using this diagnostic kit can help to reduce antibiotic prescribing.
Education and training updates!
Welcome to this spring edition of the Journal of General Practice Nursing.
We are delighted to share the latest news in the world of Education for Health with you and hope to see you learning with us soon!
We have some great opportunities for you to get involved with us — our new general practice nursing courses are already attracting a lot of interest and it’s not too late to get involved.
As always, we hope that you enjoy this issue and our news update.
In each issue of the Journal of General Practice Nursing we investigate a topic currently affecting our readers. Here, Binkie Mais asks...
How can we stop Britain from being ‘the fat man of Europe’?
Despite numerous public health campaigns encouraging us to drink and smoke less, eat more healthily and take-up some form of exercise, the UK population is still facing an obesity epidemic. Indeed, one in four British adults are said to be obese, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation and, if current trends are not reversed, more than half the population could be obese by 2050.
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.
Summer months — a blessing or a curse for people with eczema?
Eczema is a dry, itchy sometimes inflamed skin condition. People who have atopic eczema often find that their condition flares and remits with frustrating randomness. Many individuals (or parents of children with eczema) will spend a lot of energy trying to work out what makes their skin better and/or worse. Because there are multiple factors involved in the way eczema develops, it is often impossible to categorically determine what causes flare ups...
General practice nurses play a key role in identifying MS patients and connecting them with specialist services.
A new survey has highlighted concern among multiple sclerosis (MS) specialists, including nurses, that some patients with MS are not engaging with specialist services. The research — Multiple Sclerosis Clinician Survey of 100 Specialist MS Nurses and Neurologists — found that 93% of healthcare professionals with expertise in MS believe that there are people with the condition who are missing out on access to new medicines, symptom control and holistic services, all of which can be offered by the MS team.
