• Registered Nurse – Adult 2006
• Community Specialist Practitioner – District Nursing 2019
• Non-Medical Prescriber – 2022
• Nursing and Midwifery Council
• Royal College of Nursing

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I am a qualified district nurse with 17 years of nursing experience, of which the last 15 years have been in the community setting, providing nursing care to patients in their own homes or in residential care homes. My areas of expertise are wound care, pressure area care, catheter care, bowel care, gastrostomy care, falls and palliative care.

As a district nurse I manage a caseload of patients with a wide range of health needs which are often complex. I have experience in attending care planning meetings, undertaking initial holistic assessments of new patients and regular reviews of complex patients. I am responsible for setting up and arranging care tailored to patients’ individual needs by utilizing the available healthcare and social care packages. This can be short term to enable rehabilitation following acute illness or injury, or long term for chronic health conditions or permanent injuries. This involves working closely with and often undertaking joint visits with other healthcare professionals such as physiotherapists, occupational therapists and social workers.

As a Non-Medical Prescriber I am also responsible for prescribing medication for acute minor ailments such as wound infections, urine infections and medication for symptom control in palliative care.

I am responsible for managing a team of health care professionals and ensuring the safe delivery of district nursing services, along with being a source of support and advice to the team. I am involved in training and mentoring new staff and students and I hold relevant mentorship and leadership and management qualifications.

I also work as a triage clinician citywide for the community nursing and therapy services, this involves triaging any new referrals to the service and booking visits according to the urgency of the health need, managing patient call outs, prioritising patient visits for the day and providing telephone advice to patients on a range of health problems.

I am responsible for taking the lead on investigating patient incidents and complaints including rapid reviews of incidents and root cause analysis, always involving patients and their families in the investigation process. I provide feedback and learning discussions to the team on the outcome of an investigation to continually improve patient safety and service delivery.

I have developed a vast experience and hold a particular interest in palliative care and I have extended skills in this area, including the completion of advanced care plans/ do not resuscitate forms, verification of death and completion of continuing health care assessments. In my previous role as community staff nurse I was a palliative care lead for the team which involved keeping up to date with palliative care practice, providing expert advice to the team and liaising with the local hospices and specialist palliative care nurses.