Looking over the new primary care landscape

Abstract

The aims of the district nursing team are already many and varied: to prevent ill-health and to keep people healthy; to provide support for people living with long-term conditions; to treat curable problems and to provide nursing care to those with acute and complex needs; to offer palliative and terminal care to those who require it so that they may die in accordance with their wishes. Recent Government policy goes further, clearly placing district nurses in new flexible roles that are critical in enabling individuals to be supported at home, and in spearheading community-based health provision to improve the public health.