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This chat is guest hosted by @skeet_joyce and we are delighted to be joined by Carolyn Driver - Independent Travel Health and Immunisation Specialist Nurse @CarolynDriver

Carolyn Driver RGN RM RHVMSc FFTM RCPSG

Carolyn has 30 years’experience in primary care as a Health Visitor and a Practice Nurse and now specialises in travel health and immunisation. In addition to advising travellers for many years, in the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine travel clinic, she regularly runs study days on allaspects of travel health and immunisation (HPA Core Curriculum) and writing for professional journals. She works with the National Travel Health Network andCentre (NaTHNaC) as an adviser on their telephone helpline.

Carolyn is currently a member of the travel health sub group of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation and is chair of the Nurse Professional Group of the International Society of Travel Medicine.  She is a Fellow and Board member of the Faculty of Travel Medicine of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow and is an honorary tutor on the Foundation and Diploma in Travel Medicine courses and an examiner for the Diploma and Membership exams of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow.

Travel Health – A complex area of General PracticeNursing?

Most people enjoy travelling and British residents alone made 63 million visits abroad in 2015¹

Travellers include tourists, families visiting friends and relatives(VFRs), businessmen and women, diplomats, journalists, students, technical trouble-shooters, aid workers, pilgrims, immigrants, refugees, military personnel, sporting participants, spectators and many others. One of the world’s fastest growing industries is tourism, which is due to the increase of cheap air travel, accommodation and package tours. With this rapid growth and the speed of travel, many people can be back in their homes before the signs of illness present.

Travel Medicine has evolved out of a need to keep the traveller safe and healthy without destroying the joy of travel. Due to the number of travellers going abroad today and the increased awareness of the general public to travel related illness and disease, primary health care teams are now providing comprehensive pre travel advice as well as immunisations to their patients.

Most patients in the UK are registered with a GP but General Practice Nurses are the main providers of travel health advice, therefore it is important that practices offering a pre-travel health service have a nurse who has attended a number of study days and feels competent to deliver this service. 15 hours of study and mentorship are recommended in the RCN Competences – Travel Health Nursing². Also regular updates should be encouraged to ensure that the most up to date information is available to those attending.

How do GPNs manage Travel Health in their Practice?

Do you feel sufficiently knowledgeable to deliver Travel Health?

Are you encouraged to attend Travel Health study days?

What are your concerns delivering Travel Health?

Where do you go for advice?

What further support would help you to carry out your role with more confidence?

Useful links

^{http://nathnac.net/}

^{Guidelines forMalaria Prevention in the UKhttps://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/461295/2015.09.16_ACMP_guidelines_FINAL.pdf}

^{New To Travel Health?}

^{http://www.janechiodini.co.uk/media/228649/New%20to%20Travel%20Health%20April%202016.pdf}

^References

^{1. www.ONS.gov.uk}

^{2. https://www2.rcn.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/78747/003146.pdf}