Inhaled therapy for asthma

For severe or difficult asthma, a relatively new treatment exists for initiation by specialist care only. Monoclonal antibody (MAB) injections are given by intramuscular injection once a month to...

The nurse leader as a coach: Is the tide turning?

Myriad of definitions exist that seek to describe the term coaching. These include Milner et al, (2018) who argue that coaching is a skillset that requires dialogue between a coach and the person or...

The quest to find an effective vaccine for COVID-19

Coronaviruses include a range of organisms that can cause diseases, including the common cold and the current SARS-CoV-2. Despite the original severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) coronavirus...

What nurses do as routine, is special in the time of COVID-19

The overtreatment of type 2 diabetes in frail older people

The Action to Control Cardiovascular Risk in Diabetes (ACCORD) study found that people with tighter glycaemic control (HbA1c <42 mmol/mol) had excessive mortality, particularly in those with multiple...

Bronchiolitis: treatment and management in an urgent out of hours care setting

Bronchiolitis is an acute inflammation of the bronchioles that predominately affects children under the age of two years, but most common in the first 12 months of life. Respiratory syncytial virus...

Common questions on emergency and postcoital contraception

A systemic review of safety data (Jatlaoui et al, 2015) for adverse events relating to use of EC in healthy women concludes that such events are rare..

Is your pension on track?

You were excluded from the NHS Pension if employed as a practice nurse before September 1997. The effect upon your retirement prospects depends on how many years you missed out on the NHS scheme, and...

Opportunities for nurses in primary care networks: time to take the reins

PCNs should ‘typically’ cover a population of between 30 000 and 50 000 people. PCNs are expected to be geographically contiguous and coterminous with local Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) and...

Recognising the vital contribution of GPNs in the COVID-19 crisis

‘Practice nurses can support so much during the current pandemic—not least with their skills in assessment which can be carried out online and through virtual consultations with individuals and...

SAFER PRACTICES in the COVID-19 pandemic

The first part of the mnemonic, SAFER, has two purposes. Firstly, to ensure that the clinician comes to the consultation with the medical knowledge, along with the clinical assessment skills and...

Pre-diabetes and cardiovascular risk: detonating the time bomb

Worldwide, there are more than 400 million people with pre-diabetes, and it has been estimated that more than 470 million people will have prediabetes by 2030 (Middelbeek and Abrahamson, 2014).

Monitoring respiratory rate in adults

Health professionals use several terms to describe irregular respiratory rates, including:.

Measles: An overview for practice nurses

The disease is most likely to occur in late winter or spring. Spread occurs via respiratory droplets, which can remain active and contagious, either airborne or on surfaces, for up to 2 hours (Chen,...