The future of nursing: to care or coach?
The NHS was originally designed to address acute episodes of care. However, with the increase of the aging population and multi co-morbidities, demographics and how we now use the NHS have changed. It has been suggested that the NHS cannot continue as it is, dealing with chronic conditions in a system designed to deal with acute episodes. This event suggested that it is essential to encourage patient education, training and empowerment so that they can carry out important tasks such as dialysis at home, and be kept out of acute settings.
Keeping patients out of acute settings will not only relieve pressures on hospital beds, but also give patients more freedom, for example a capacity to return to work. Many hospitals in the UK provide patient training during daytime office hours on how to use dialysis machines and prescriptions to do just that. The event then investigated the example of the residential Patient Education Centre in London. The centre, rather uniquely, allows patients to stay overnight - with nurses on call, as part of their training. This opportunity allows patients to gain experience of using their dialysis machine in a similar environment to their own home and at a time it most likely to be used – over night.
These examples showed that when patients are given support and appropriate time to become engaged and confident in their own care they are successful and kept out of hospital.
