You would be forgiven in thinking that as a mobile community NHS service in 2020,District Nurses (DN) across the UK would have access to digital technology in patients’ homes. Clearly, live access to integrated health and care records would support the delivery of complex nursing care in the home. However, the Queen’s Nursing Institute (QNI, 2018) report, ‘Nursing in the Digital Age’ found that 29% of community nurses surveyed were still working largely with paper-based systems,despite 74% citing that IT systems provided a more reliable way of working compared to paper. The QNI (2018) also found 67, ‘differently named IT systems being used in community healthcare. Recent comments @WeDistrictNurses (2019)has similarly revealed frustration an ...

Here are some of the questions that we aim to ask during this tweetchat:1. Have you found escalation within services helpful to resolve the issue you’re encountering? 2. What have been the main barriers to prompt escalation? 3. Is escalation late, better than no escalation at all? Have you got any examples of when this may be necessary? 4. When speaking with the on call manger what are your expectations of them? Or, if you are an on call manager, what are your expectations of those calling you? 5. When escalating is there anything you’ve found particular helpful that would benefit other organisations? 6. If you could change escalation processes, what would be the one thing you’d do? ...

Smoking is not a lifestyle choice but a chronic relapsing condition needing treatment. This is recognised by the government's commitment for the NHS in England to become smokefree. Supporting smokers in contact with the healthcare system to quit is a prevention priority in the NHS Long Term Plan and every health and care professional has a role to play.    As a healthcare professional, you are best placed to motivate and support smokers on their quit journey. Smokers expect healthcare professionals to ask about their smoking.   All healthcare professionals should identify and refer smokers using the method known as Very Brief Advice (VBA) which has 3 components - 'Ask, Advise and Act':   1.      Ask and record smoking status: is the patient ...

A key priority in the vision of the Chief Nursing Officer for England (CNO) is to empower all nurses, midwives and care staff to be involved in having a strong professional collective voice. Ward and unit accreditation schemes are designed to improve the quality of care by empowering staff and supporting the sharing of best practice across areas.Join us to hear from colleagues already successfully leading accreditation schemes in practice, share experiences, discuss opportunities and hear about collective leadership at its best. Join in wider discussions by searching, following and adding #teamCNO and / or #1professionalvoice on Twitter. You can visit the NHS England website to learn more about accreditation and collective leadership here.  ...

This is a #MDX_EL catch up tweetchat for anyone who missed taking part in a tweetchat as part of WeLearn Digital Professionalism. What is professionalism? Seems like an easy question doesn't it? Until you try to find the words to describe it ... it seems so much easier to define what unprofessionalism looks like, but what is it to be a professional.The NMC Code sets "the professional standards that registered nurses and midwives must uphold" (NMC 2015) and is split into four distinct areas:Prioritising peoplePractise effectivelyPreserve safetyPromote professionalism and trust But perhaps being a professional is more than this? The Enabling Professionalism Framework (2018) states "Professionalism is characterised by the autonomous evidence-b ...

This Twitter Chat will discuss the issue of intimate partner abuse (IPA) occurring within the house bound population cared for by the District Nursing Service. Some people call IPA; domestic abuse or domestic violence, buttonight’s chat will use the acronym IPA. This chat invites contributions from professionals who have knowledge or experiences of intimate partner abuse and are employed or experienced within community and district nursing services at any professional level. More than 250 000 people aged 66+ annually report maltreatment from a family member (NICE, 2014). More than half of these individuals’ state that a spouse or partner is the perpetrator. Whilst both men and women report violence by their partner, women are disproportiona ...