Practice Nurse Newsletter - January 2022
Written by Anna Davis and Gemma Bird
Brief update from me
Happy 2022! We hope all your plans and events come to fruition this year. It is still a strange time, its difficult to know what will happen next in terms of appointments and priorities and many people will be experiencing change fatigue. However, please spare a thought for our extended family in secondary care; we spoke with secondary care nurses this week about re-deployment and how they are feeling and the difficulties they face not knowing where they will be placed from one day to the next. If you would like to speak to someone regarding any anxieties you may have, there are services available like Looking After You. Looking After You is an excellent free service with experienced coaches who will work with you to discuss any area of your wellbeing that you would like to address. They will listen, ask questions and support you to develop practical strategies to cope with your situation and stay well.
In this edition of the newsletter, you will find information and news on:
Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Practice Nurse Leads – Our Role
We work clinically but we also work 3 days a week each on this shared role. We help to deliver Notts GPN Team Strategy. One of the roles is representation within the system where a Notts GPN voice is needed. With an intention to develop a system where your voices can be heard. Meetings include, promoting workforce, quality or clinical agendas.
Nursing Associates
At the beginning of this month we celebrated the graduation of the Nottingham Trent University’s first Cohort of Qualified Nursing Associates. It was lovely to share Ellie and Gemma’s big day. It’s a challenging course juggling; work, placements and academic work but they managed brilliantly. We are very lucky to have a couple of higher Institutes offering the programme in this area. There are around 30 Trainee/ Registered Nursing Associates in Nottinghamshire Primary Care and the intention is to grow this further. If you think it is for you but your surgery is not in a position to support, a Primary Care Network might. See button.
Training sessions and dates
The training hub always has a suite of sessions, mostly virtual at present. Many directed at the nursing team, relating to the training needs analysis completed last year. Check the list out and sign up for the NATH newsletter for up and coming events.
Wound Care Project ‘2 Week Wait’
As part of the CARE Programme (GPN leadership) we did a deep dive on wound care in primary care. A significant issue was that GPNs were waiting more than 2 weeks to refer on to leg ulcer clinic due to previous guidelines. A task and finish group in Nottingham West was formed to address this. There is now a separate lower limb template on F12 to go through the pathway,
The referral on the South single point access hub is a pre-populated referral but you must fill in the electronic part still so the leg ulcer co-ordinators are aware the referral has been made.
As a group from community and primary we are now in talks with secondary care to make the leg ulcer pathway smoother for all patients.
Wound Care teaching
Following on from the project we have a teaching session updating us on the latest management with lower limb wounds.
Diabetic Services Update Webinar
Are you at a loss of what to inform your patients on diabetes and pre-diabetes education – where it’s been held and what they need to know? Do you have e-mails about different diabetes schemes but unsure about what they are about? We are hosting a webinar to pull the latest information together
Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Primary Care Racism and Discrimination Survey
This survey is part of a strategy to overcome the barriers our workforce faces, addressing racial inequities and understanding the diversity of our Primary Care teams. We encourage everyone to complete this survey, even if you have not been directly impacted by the issues raised. The survey closes on 28 Feb.
- Anna Davis and Gemma Bird -
Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Practice Nurse Leads
Relevant Links
ShinyMind App - A free wellbeing and resilience app for all Primary and Community care workers in Nottingham & Nottinghamshire ICS
Tagged as: Practice Nurse Newsletter
Share this post: