Editorial Resources

Being raised by my grandparents who were both profoundly deaf meant learning to sign from around three years of age in order to communicate. As I grew up, I realised how important it was to raise awareness in relation to deafness — the potential barriers deaf people can face, and the positive aspects of being able to communicate effectively with people with hearing loss.

Welcome to our March 2021 issue. As I sit at my desk looking out the window on a breathtakingly beautiful spring morning, I cannot help but feel hopeful. It’s nearly a year since the first lockdown, and we have made so much progress in adapting to and tackling this pandemic. This issue’s ‘Practice matters’ feature brings a wonderfully discursive and educational piece about the Covid-19 vaccine, which captures the feel of sitting around a table with colleagues sharing information and experiences. It also demonstrates the ways in which we can lead as a profession with our long history as key players in vaccination programmes, and how teamwork with our multidisciplinary colleagues and an all hands-on deck approach to fighting the pandemic is important.

Remembering our vital role in chronic disease management and the importance of continuing to develop our skills in this area I was delighted to read the article on heart failure and the nurse competency framework. The authors state that ‘heart failure should be considered as malignant a disease as cancer and treated with the same urgency’. As GPNs seeing people with multiple chronic diseases, we have the opportunity to suspect and start the process for the diagnosis of heart failure. Covid-19 infection also brings increased risk of heart failure for those who have been hospitalised and may further increase the number of people it effects.

Other articles to highlight include Naomi Berry’s piece on deaf awareness and how to promote communication (particularly pertinent with our current need for face masks and more remote consultations); Callum Metcalf, ANP/GPN in Norfolk, has written a highly insightful article on deprescribing in type 2 diabetes (I found the step-by-step guide as to what to consider with different drug groups incredibly helpful and will add it to my reference folder at the surgery); Gaynor Bussell, a freelance dietician, offers evidence and practical suggestions on how women can use diet and lifestyle changes to help with health conditions throughout their life; Sian Williams has combined her health and dance skills to write an uplifting article on her experience of dance and pulmonary rehabilitation with an online group (this is a resource I plan to look into in more detail for my patients); and there is also a practical guide to diagnosing and managing migraine from Rebecca Stuckey, CNS in Devon.

We welcome your ideas, feedback and contributions for future publications. Please continue to get involved with the journal so we can shape it to your needs and ensure we reflect your views, practice and knowledge within its pages. Thank you so much to everyone who has contributed so far to this varied, stimulating and motivating journal. I am proud to be a part of it.

Jaqui Walker, editor-in-chief

Many men with prostate cancer do not experience symptoms until the disease has spread. This means that they risk being diagnosed too late, when the cancer is incurable. With your help, asymptomatic men with prostate cancer could be recognised earlier and their lives could be saved. Prostate Cancer UK believes general practice nurses (GPNs) are in a unique position, as they are ideally placed to recognise men at higher risk of prostate cancer and help ensure that prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing is delivered to best effect.

Much-loved family recipes inspire intergenerational and international cookbook

People who are extroverted tend to seek social stimulation and opportunities to engage with others through social interaction. Yet, whether you have an introvert or extrovert personality, loneliness can strike anyone. Being an extrovert by nature, experiencing enforced lockdown earlier this year was initially extremely daunting and challenging for me. Although well past the ‘flush of youth ‘, I am still in a section of life where my calendar was filled with meetings, attendance at international conference/exhibitions, networking and travelling, giving me a purpose to manage my professional and home life with positivity.

It seems that the focus for many is now on potential Covid-19 vaccines, with people understandably seeing a potential end in sight to the current pandemic. It is worth celebrating the pivotal role that general practice nurses (GPNs) already play in delivering vaccine programmes to people throughout their lives. The majority of vaccine programmes in the UK are delivered in primary care or wider community settings, and GPNs are crucial to the successful delivery of these. Although most of the vaccines in the routine schedule (Public Health England [PHE], 2020a) are recommended to infants and children to provide protection against infections as soon as possible, vaccines remain necessary for people at all stages of their lives. Indeed, for many vaccines, people are never too old to have them. Thus, it is essential for nurses in general practice to make sure adults at all ages are protected throughout their lives.

General practice nurses (GPNs) across the country are set to benefit from CARE (connected, authentic, resilient, and empowered) — a practical development programme that empowers participants to drive innovation, strengthen relationships and develop a bottom-up, population healthfocused approach to care.

The programme supports GPNs to build self-awareness and resilience, which in turn is helping to unlock exciting innovation and improved system leadership, in spite of this time of heightened pressure.

The impact of COVID-19 has been felt across the UK and continues to be so, even with lockdown measures lifted in many parts of the country. As a specialist nurse at Prostate Cancer UK, we provide information and support to thousands of men living with and concerned about prostate cancer. We have heard many stories of the amazing measures that have been put in place by healthcare professionals to ensure appropriate access to treatment has continued, and we have also been hearing about the difficult decisions men and their medical teams have had to make around changes or delays to treatment by weighing up the risk of Covid-19 infection and the risk of their disease progression.