The Community Nursing Service provides scheduled/planned care to house bound patients who have complex nursing needs. The primary purpose of Community Nursing is to provide holistic health needs assessment for patients, families and carers. Community Nurses provide skilled clinical judgement to enable patients to improve, maintain or manage their health problems, in order to achieve the best possible quality of life. The service also supports and manages end of life pathways.
The service offers:
Assessment
Care planning – single assessment
Referral onto other services/agencies if required
Holistic assessment of need, resulting in devising of relevant care plans, including nursing care interventions
Assessments include (this list is not exhaustive):
Care Management Needs
Continuing Health Care
Continence
Disease Specific Risk Assessments
Manual Handling Assessments
Nutrition Assessment
Palliative Care
Pain Assessments
Personal Hygiene
Phlebotomy
Risk Assessments
Teaching
Wound Care including Leg Ulcers
Intervention
Treatment to patients who are housebound include:
Bowel and bladder management
Catheter care
Diabetic care
Eye Care
Intravenous therapy
Medication Management
Nurse prescribing
Palliative care / terminal care / bereavement care
Phlebotomy, venepuncture
Pressure area care
Health Promotion
Advise on diet and fluid intake
Immunisation and vaccinations
Smoking cessation
Support the health promotion agenda e.g. making every contact count
Location:
The service is divided into five localities across Bedfordshire. Teams are located within a number of different bases across the county.
Referrals can be accepted from the following:
· Acute hospital / hospice
· GPs
· Allied health professionals
· Community matrons
· Health promotion
· Specialist nurses
· Social services / social workers
· Voluntary services
· Self referrals from patients and carers