Community Nursing Misconceptions

In this inspiring video, Student Nurse Lillie goes into what has led her to pursue a career as a Community Nurse, and debunks some common myths surrounding nursing in a community setting.

Hello, my name is Lillie and I’m a final year Student Nurse from Newcastle. And today I’m going to talking about the common misconceptions about community nursing.

What Is A Community Nurse?

A Community Nurse is a Registered Nurse who provides care and support to individuals within their own homes, GP clinics, care homes, villages, and communities across the United Kingdom.

Community Nurses must have excellent communication and interpersonal skills, time management skills, be resourceful and competent to meet the needs of patients. Community Nurses offer 24/7 care within communities through out of hours services.

Without the help and expertise from Community Nurses, many individuals within the United Kingdom would be unable to live at home. They play an extremely important role within our society, and I feel they are often overlooked.

Why I'm Becoming A Community Nurse

I’ve recently been offered my first ever nursing position as a Community Nurse and I couldn’t be more excited.

I’ve always been drawn to community nursing as a career ever since I decided I wanted to be a nurse. And this is because I was inspired by the care that was provided to my late nanna.

The Community Nurses that provided her end-of-life care in her own home, were outstanding. They were so genuine, knowledgeable, competent, and holistic. And although they no doubt had a busy schedule, they always made time for my family and nanna’s concerns and needs. The Community Nurses who looked after my nanna are still honestly some of the best nurses I’ve ever come across.

I wanted to become a Community Nurse because of how well those nurses cared for my nanna and my family; it was done right for me, so I want to make sure it’s done right for other people.

Misconceptions About Community Nursing

So, it came as quite a shock when I started training to be a nurse, that there were some inaccurate views about being a Community Nurse.

It seemed lower down in the hierarchy of nursing, with more acute care being at the top and palliative and community care seemingly somewhere near the bottom. There seemed to be an understanding that palliative and community care is somewhere a nurse goes to retire, for an easier life.

This is clearly not true, and I guess this must be part of nursing culture in the UK. But I do believe it is changing, and for the better too. Throughout this video I’m going to present some common misconceptions I’ve encountered and discuss them to hopefully debunk these nursing myths.

During some of my placements, nursing mentors and other staff would ask If I had an idea of what style of nursing to wanted to pursue when I qualified, when I replied with ‘community nursing’, the majority of the time I’d receive a negative response. Such as:

‘You should gain experience in a hospital first.’

‘You’ll be drinking cups of tea in the community, mind.’

‘It’s not as easy as you think.’

‘You’ll be a lone worker, so you’ll have no support.’

‘It’s hard to progress as a Community Nurse.’

All these statements are false! During my Community Nurse placement, I gained so much knowledge and experience I struggled to get on the ward. Being on your own and having to make clinical decisions really helped my management and clinical judgement skills.

I’m going to talk through some common misconceptions about community nursing and a bit about my own experience on my community placement.

Without the help and expertise from Community Nurses, many individuals within the United Kingdom would be unable to live at home. They play an extremely important role within our society.

You’ll Be ‘Making Cups Of Tea’ In The Community

I don’t even know where to really start with this one!

So, the mantra behind this one is that community nursing is easier than hospital nursing. This is a bit ridiculous as no one becomes a nurse because it’s an easier vocation.

The Royal College of Nursing and its members have just staged the first national strikes in its 106-year history. Nurses are striking across all disciplines due to increased workloads-exasperated by the high levels of staff retiring and quitting, burnout and comprised patient safety. This is the same in the community.

During my Community Nurse placement, I was given my own case load, and I quickly learnt that you had to have strong time management skills and be resourceful. Not only can a Community Nurse can be given a large case load, but they also have to navigate their way to the patient’s addresses, and you don’t know what to expect once you’re visiting that patient. You may suspect they have a blood clot and have to ring for an ambulance; they may require extra assessments and interventions.

And finally, sometimes making a patient a cup of tea on the ward or in the community is the best thing you did for a patient that day. Sometimes it’s the little things you do for patients are important to them. Admittedly, it may not be a lifesaving intervention, but it is patient centred care and part of the fundamentals of nursing.

You Aren’t Supported In The Community

There is a lot of support from the Multidisciplinary Team in the community, such as healthcare assistants, nursing associates, GPs, specialist nurses, other Newly Qualified and Student Nurses, out of hours teams, receptionists, Practice Nurses, and paramedics.

Although you may be a lone worker, Community Nurses very much do work as part of a big team, they tend to contact each other if they need extra support or advice.

When I was on placement in the community, I went to do what I thought would be a simple dressing change of a drain removal, but upon arrival, the patient had also had a mastectomy, meaning she had large bandages across her chest. She also had a smaller dressing where her drain had been.

I was unsure if all the bandages were to be removed, so working within my own competence, I called the matron for advice. She was able to check on the computer system what exactly the patient needed. We agreed that it would be best to leave the mastectomy dressing change to the breast specialist nurse she was seeing in a couple of days, as the dressing looked, clean and intact. I felt supported and reassured by the team I was working with.

It’s Hard To Progress In The Community

Fellow nurses who I’ve worked with on the ward have had this opinion. I am not sure where this idea stems from, but it may be the feeling that you can only be a Band 5 in the community or a Band 6 District Nurse. But this is not the case. There’s lots of different learning opportunities and areas to specialise in as a Community Nurse.

You can do training courses in wound care, end of life care, vaccinations, etc.

You could become a School Nurse or even a District Nurse and become involved with team management and more complex cases.

Community nursing is also a good route into becoming a specialist in different areas, like Tissue Viability or Palliative Care Nurse or even health visiting.

There’s lots of different opportunities to pursue as a Community Nurse. And just because you start your career as a Community Nurse doesn’t mean you can’t go back into nursing in hospitals.

Community Nursing Is Not Suitable For Newly Qualified Nurses

I’ve been told a lot as a student nurse in various placements that community nursing is not suitable for newly qualified nurses because you don’t have enough hospital experience.

Although, I do appreciate that you are a lone worker in the community, as a Newly Qualified Nurse, both on a ward or within the district, you have a period of shadowing other experienced nurses. This helps build your confidence and competence as a health professional.

The Trust I am with also has a preceptorship scheme for Newly Qualified Nurses. Preceptorship is a structured period for Newly Qualified Nurses or Nursing Associates when they begin employment in the NHS. During this time, they should be supported by an experienced staff and must be signed off on clinical skills, to help develop their confidence as an independent professional, and to refine their skills, values, and behaviours.

Having this support from experienced staff and time for learning is the foundation for future learning and implementing best practice and person-centred care.

Community Nurses are an integral part of the NHS workforce… people are living longer, developing more chronic conditions and need more support in living well in their own homes. We are vital in supporting NHS hospitals because we can help avoid A&E admissions by assessing and caring for individuals in their own homes…

You’ll Deskill As A Community Nurse

I think I heard this statement the most. I believe that it comes from people having a lack of understanding of exactly what Community Nurses do on a daily basis.

A Community Nurse’s role is so varied and vital. Community Curses carry out vaccination programs, complex wound care, diabetes management, catheter care and much more.

A big part of a Community Nurse’s role is to support end of life care. They must have really good communication skills, such as empathetic skills and bereavement support. Alongside this, Community Nurses must have a strong medicines management knowledge base to help management symptoms in those who are receiving end of life care.

It is simply not true that you will deskill as a Community Nurse, the role is complex, and you have to be resourceful to work with what you have in the community as it is not a clinical setting.

You’ll Be Wasted In The Community

I’ve recently been told this after receiving the news that I got my first nursing post as a Community Nurse. Although, I was pleased to hear that they thought I was going to be a good nurse, I couldn’t help feeling a little offended that they thought community nursing was maybe an easy option or not complex.

If you want to work as a Community Nurse, then go for it! If there’s an area of practice, you’re passionate about, don’t let the views of other professionals’ cloud what you want. Follow your own ambitions. It’s your nursing career and you can do whatever you want to do.

Conclusion

To conclude, Community Nurses are an integral part of the NHS workforce.

We’re currently living in an ageing population, meaning that people are living longer, developing more chronic conditions and need more support in living well in their own homes.

Furthermore, Community Nurses are vital in supporting NHS hospitals because we can help avoid A&E and hospital admissions by assessing and caring for individuals in their own homes, by implementing care plans and referring to helpful services.

It is an exciting time to become Community Nurse due to more funding and importance focus on the role in the NHS long term plan.

I believe that there should be more education and more opportunities for student placements within community settings to help debunk some of these myths, and support and inspire them to go into this role.

Hope you’ve enjoyed my video and thank you for watching!

If you’re interested in becoming a Community Nurse, you can see our job listings here.