9.5.1 The voice of community nursing in Scotland - Responses to the review of nursing in the community in Scotland (30)

Julia Quickfall, Nurse Directoe, Head Office, Queen's Nursing Institute Scotland, Edinburgh, United Kingdom julia.quickfall@qnis.org.uk

Abstract:

Following the report, 'Building a Health Service Fit for the Future' (Scottish Executive 2005), a Review of Nursing in the Community was commissioned to consider how community nursing services should be redesigned. Building on the notion of a generic community nursing role, the Review (Scottish Executive, 2006) recommended the introduction of a new discipline of Community Health Nurse (CHN), which will combine the roles of district nursing, health visiting and school nursing. The rationale for this change was the need to address the increasing workload of a diminishing community nursing workforce to provide services for older people suffering an increased incidence of long term conditions and more complex health care needs. People living in the community considered that they preferred a single point of access to community nursing (Scottish Executive, 2006). This presentation will report on an initial series of focus groups carried out in early 2007 to find out the views of educationalists, line managers specialist practitioners (including health visitors and district nurses) and community staff nurses (QNIS 2007), to ascertain their views on the introduction of this new role. Subsequently, further focus groups were held in 2007 with school nurses, family health nurses and practice nurses, as well as with General Practitioners. The participants of the focus groups were drawn from Health Boards throughout Scotland and were representative of their particular discipline. The findings show that the participants were negative concerning the introduction of the CHN role; albeit that they were in agreement with need for change, there were concerns about the breadth of the CHN role, as well as the issues of protection of vulnerable children and adults. The findings have been used to inform the Scottish Executive CHN Implementation Board and the development sites taking forward the CHN initiative.

Biography:

I have been in post as the Nurse Director of the Queen's Nursing Institute Scotland (QNIS) since 2003. I am also a PhD student, currently completing a study of cultural competence in the primary health and nursing care of asylum applicants. My background is in community nursing; I have held a variety of health visiting and district nursing posts over many years, with a particular interest in the health care needs of disadvantaged groups, such as asylum applicants and homeless people.