Cardiovascular disease

To Glove or Not to Glove?

With increasing awareness about preventable acquired infections along with ever increasing patient knowledge, it is essential that all healthcare staff understand the principles underpinning infection control. In particular, they need to be clear about hand hygiene and the appropriate use of gloves if they and their patients are to remain safe from the risk of transmission of microorganisms and the infections they cause. We review when gloves are needed and when they are not.

Editorial

“It is no use saying ‘We are doing our best.’ You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.” So said Winston Churchill. His approach helped win the Second World War, and applies just as well to the war we fight every day against cardiovascular disease.

Editorial

Welcome to the summer issue of BJPCN – just what you need to read on the beach! We are delighted to have a guest editorial from Dr Sue Roberts, the National Clinical Director for Diabetes, providing encouragement for the work that we, as practice nurses, do in improving the management of diabetes.

Editorial

“A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle,” to quote the Lebanese poet, Kahlil Gibran. Well, that’s what the British Journal of Primary Care Nursing (BJPCN) is all about – putting knowledge into action. And it sums up what primary care nurses do too. We are not people who sit about debating what to do, we get on and do it.

Editorial

Well, spring has sprung! The first few months of each year are a good time to look forward to the challenges ahead. This can be rather daunting, but the bright flowers of spring give us glimpses of hope. In the same way, we hope that this issue of BJPCN can – like a bunch of daffodils – brighten up your day-to-day work in coping with the “warp speed” of change in the NHS.

The Importance of Belonging: Nurse Forums and Networks

Editorial

New starts. It may be a cliché, but the end of each year and the first month of the next one offer the chance for a new start for us all – health professionals and patients. And for the British Journal of Primary Care Nursing (BJPCN), we have a whole selection box of new starts for our readers and the patients we care for

Editorial

I am keeping my fingers crossed as I write this that you are all having to apply sun protection factor 30 as a result of a glorious summer and that you are enjoying reading this issue of British Journal of Primary Care Nursing to the accompaniment of gently chinking ice cubes as drinks are served to you while you recline under a parasol! Well it was a nice thought!

Editorial

Welcome to the latest issue of the British Journal of Primary Care Nursing (BJPCN). The NHS is currently in meltdown around the ears of primary care teams, with new mergers and reshuffles. There is great uncertainty about who will lead the new PCTs and the structures that will support the delivery of CHD and diabetes care. But, like many of you, I have been around long enough to know that things ‘go in circles’.

Editorial

Welcome to our second birthday edition of the British Journal of Primary Care Nursing (BJPCN). We can’t promise you cake and candles but we have a lot of goodies that should help smooth the way for primary care nurses in our efforts to improve the management of CVD and diabetes.

The Exception or the Rule? Exception Reporting in the new GMS Contract

Under the new GMS (nGMS) contract, practices can report patients as exceptions under certain circumstances. Exception reporting prevents a practice being penalised under the Quality and Outcomes Framework of nGMS for factors outside its control or for a range of other patient-related issues. In this article, we review when patients can be reported as exceptions, how to report exceptions and some practical examples of exception reporting.

Making Sense of Practice-Based Commissioning

Practice-based commissioning – in which practices commission care directly – will be universal by December 2006. This means that it is no longer an option for practices to commission the care they need for their patients. We must either get involved and take control of this opportunity or allow someone else to do it for us. This may be our last chance to remain independent and to manage our practices rather than being managed by others. In this article, we look at what practice commissioning will involve and how it will affect practices and PCTs.

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