Bringing integrated care into nursing
I am a paediatric nurse working as a clinical nurse educator in my full time role and I wanted to learn something different. I got involved with CC4C to learn more about integrated care and look at how we develop our nursing workforce. I have been seconded from my role as part of the Great Western ward team to work with the paediatricians, junior doctors and project teams. I have had a great 3 months learning about integrated care and thinking about how we get our nurses more involved.
What did I do?
Learning about CC4C has opened up my eyes to a new way of working. Coming into the team as a nurse from the acute setting, I knew very little about what happened when the patients leave the hospital. I have been able to see first-hand what the concerns of patients and parents are and how we can support them better in the community setting. Attending the hub meetings at the GP practices taught me about amazing multi-disciplinary working and putting the patient at the heart of the conversation to support best outcomes.
Networking and understanding the world outside of hospital has played a big part in my journey. At the CC4C away day I learnt about the projects that are happening and had the chance to think about where a difference can be made. Working in the hospital I really didn’t understand or know enough about what goes on to further support children and young people.
Understanding CC4C meant I could think creatively how best to use our nursing workforce. A first step was to get engagement from the nursing team. Meeting with people from the acute and community setting has stimulated a good amount of interest.
What’s next?
Moving forward we have nursing students and health visiting students booked to come along to meet the CC4C team and experience a little bit of what goes on. The ward nurses are invited to work on projects that support the growth of CC4C. The community nursing team are supporting our plan to rotate nurses from the acute setting into the community. We want to give people the opportunity to understand integrated care and how they can join in and help make a difference to children’s lives.
