Community

So much has been happening at Nursing Times in recent days that I was struggling to pin down what I wanted to focus on writing about this week. Thus, I’ve opted to try and tell you about it all. On Tuesday, we held our annual Nursing Times Workforce Summit &…

Prescribers, infection specialist, pharmacy and nursing teams are responsible for ensuring timely intravenous-to-oral switch (IVOS) of antibiotics (UK Health and Security Agency (UKHSA), 2023). National antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) competencies for nursing practice say nurses should be able to describe why it’s important to switch patients from intravenous (IV) to oral…

My friend lost her husband when he was just 50 years old. He died suddenly after being blue lighted to hospital. A year on, she feels able to reflect on her experiences, not from a critical care perspective but from a genuine need to protect others from having the same…

As I write today, Europe is burning up with extreme heat as we, here in Dorset, have resumed our usual wet and windy English summer in time for the school holidays. The government alerts us that severe hot weather is dangerous to everyone. Heatwaves can happen suddenly, and rapid rises…

Nurses can play a vital role in tackling the climate crisis and aiming for net zero, and the profession needs to act now. That is the unequivocal message from nurses writing for Nursing Times this month. The very high temperatures and extreme weather conditions that have afflicted southern Europe and…

Working in the community, my role is to support the care partners throughout the trajectory of the dementia their family member is living with. This sounds so simple and straightforward but being a carer for a loved one living with a dementia is one of the biggest and most immense…

Nursing an ageing population means that the patients entering the hospitals are becoming more and more frail. The introduction of acute frailty units, much like acute medical units are becoming the norm for those patients who are increasingly more frail. Despite this, frailty is often not understood and not recognised.…

The 75th anniversary of the NHS is an event that we should all celebrate, and also a time for us all to reflect on healthcare in this country – where it has come from and where it is going. By the time the NHS was established in 1948, the Queen’s…

Assessing and managing risk is a big part of the role of the Admiral Nurse, and is an area that can be particularly challenging to get right when working on the helpline, where all contact is via telephone or in some cases just email. Risk can mean different things to…

The NHS – which will turn 75 in July – was created as a universal service. Largely free at the point of delivery, most services are available to the population regardless of age, disability, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender or gender reassignment, or any other characteristic. "This is the…