District nurses and home carers 2: colloborative education

Abstract

This article, the second in a series of three, outlines an initiative in North Wales which developed a programme of education provided by a district nursing team for social service home carers. The main aim of the project was to improve collaborative working between social services home carers and district nurses. This article describes the rationale for and the progress of the project drawing on relevant literature to justify the approaches used. The approaches undertaken to evaluate the work in terms of structure, process and outcome for patients, home carers and district nurses are discussed.

Community nurses', home carers' and patients' perceptions of factors affecting venous leg ulcer recurrence and management of services

“…As some clients receive support from social services it was felt worth exploring the feasibility of training social service home carers to apply compression hosiery and skin emollients for those with healed ulcers in an attempt to support healing behaviours. Collaborative approaches to the provision of leg ulcer aftercare services are beginning to receive more attention (Redworth et al 1999). It has been recognized that SSHCs could be co‐opted to provide essential aftercare once healing has occurred, although the logistics of this approach have not been explored fully in the literature (Keeling et al 1997).…”