Heart Beat

August 28 – A third-generation nurse is playing a key role in improving care in local care homes. Kai Brownhill is touring homes in Lincolnshire teaching staff about how to prevent falls and about key nursing issues such as pressure sore awareness and continence support. He has now been listed as a finalist in the [...]

August 20 – The NHS is to get a network of quality groups set up to try to prevent the mistakes which allowed the care scandals in Stafford to develop, it has been announced. The plans were announced in a draft report from the new National Quality Board. Ministers admitted it had been published in [...]

August 8 – Some 11 members of staff at a scandal plagued care home have admitted a series of offences at Bristol Crown Court. The 11 former workers at the Winterbourne View Care Home admitted some 40 charges of abuse and neglect of residents with learning disabilities. The admissions triggered the publication of a series [...]

July 5 – A shortage of specialist district nurses may be responsible for the numbers of people who die in hospital when they might prefer to be at home, nursing leaders said yesterday. The Royal College of Nursing said it was “deeply concerned” that a survey of bereaved people found many dying people could not [...]

June 15 – A nurse has been praised for a pioneering project which has prevented patients with Parkinson’s disease from needing hospital treatment. Specialist nurse Lynn Gill set up the project in North Devon. Her aim is to ensure patients get extra support at home to prevent hospital admissions – recognising that people with the [...]

June 13 – A major campaign has been successfully recruiting NHS organisations in a drive to improve basic care for patients, it was announced today. Organised by the Patients Association and Nursing Standard magazine, the Care campaign calls on staff to provide four fundamentals of care at all times. These are: Communicate with compassion, Assist [...]

April 2 – A half a billion pounds contract for community services in Surrey has been handed to Richard Branson’s Virgin company, it has been announced. The deal covers two areas of the county, the south-west and the north-west, together with some county-wide services. The deal is thought to be the largest “privatisation” yet in [...]

March 28 – Standard training is essential for all healthcare assistants, warns the Royal College of Nursing today. In new guidance for commissioners and employers, the RCN sets out its “Position statement on the education and training of healthcare assistants”. It calls for nationally recognised training, regulation, and limits on the tasks that healthcare assistants [...]

March 14 – Care homes are suffering a dangerous lack of funding, nurses warned today. The Royal College of Nursing publishes the findings of a new survey of care home nurses. More than a quarter (26 per cent) reported that they do not have adequate equipment and medical supplies, up six per cent from 2010. [...]

November 22 – The drive against poor care is to be extended to companies and organisations that supply home care services, it was announced today. Some 250 providers are to be targeted by the Care Quality Commission, as it seeks to demonstrate a tough approach to quality of care and nursing. Inspectors will focus on [...]