The District
Nurses are based at Leatside Surgery.
They work 8.30 til 5.30
round the week.
Contact them on 01803
860301 and leave a message on their
answerphone.
The District Nurse!
What an image those words
bring to mind - the Doctor's handmaid, clutching
black bag containing yards of rubber tubing,
on her way to be the ministering angel for
someone who needs a bath!
Well maybe - once upon
a time, but like everything in our swiftly
changing society, the District Nurse's role
has changed too.
Here in Totnes we have
a team of nine Community Nurses - one Sister
who heads up a team of 5 other Registered
Nurses and 2 Health Care Assistants who
are NVQ III trained. Amongst the team we
have a range of skills.
The Sister
is trained in holistic assessment so that
the whole of the person is taken into consideration,
not just the presenting complaint. She is
also qualified as a Nurse Prescriber which
means she can prescribe directly to the
patient herself from a limited range of
products.
The Registered
Nurses are highly skilled in the
area of tissue viability, Continence and
Care of the Dying and Chronic Disease Management,
many having undergone further training in
their chosen specialism.
The Health Care Assistants
are particularly skilled in taking bloods
and are actually the ones many of the Registered
Nurses call upon for those "difficult"
veins! |
