Associate feature: Community Nurses Preventing Cardiovascular Disease

Scottish charity, the Queen’s Nursing Institute Scotland (QNIS), has recently supported four community clinical nurse experts to become Queen’s Nurses and to deliver lasting change in the health of local people to prevent CVD. 

With funding support from the Burdett Trust for Nursing they embarked on the Queen’s Nurse Development Programme, a 9-month programme for community nurses and midwives that is designed to develop the skills of those who are deeply committed to making a difference in their communities, particularly to the lives of those who live in areas of deprivation or are marginalised by society.

As part of the programme each nurse works on an issue for development which makes a difference to their community. They listen to the voices of those receiving care, to understand the challenges and barriers they face. Each project has a focus on health inequalities, exploring ways to reduce risks of cardiovascular disease.

Dana Crawford 
Clinical Nurse Manager Community Children’s Services, NHS Lothian, (was Health Visiting Team Manager during the programme)

Leading by example in tackling health inequalities  

Weaning children onto healthy foods can have a lasting and profound impact on their future health. Dana worked with nursery nurses to target vulnerable families facing poverty, isolation, addiction, and poor mental health to offer additional support to help establish healthy weaning. She has set up dedicated weaning classes where vulnerable families are provided with practical tools to support them. In Scotland, we are faced with an obesity crisis in children which is strongly linked to CVD in later life, so supporting parents to wean their children onto healthier diets could see a reduction in CVD in the future.  

Rosie Crighton 
Health Visitor and School Nurse Team Leader, and Part time Operational Lead Nurse, NHS Grampian   

Empowering an imprisoned population to improve their heart health

Rosie held focus groups with prisoners to understand what extra support may be offered in relation to heart health. The groups developed ideas including more information on diet, colour coding menu choices, information posters, and creating a coaster with heart health information to be used throughout the prison, designed by prisoners. Prisoners have shared how much a listening ear and the opportunity to discuss heart health was valued. Inspired by the suggestions from those Rosie supports, she is also creating an animation to help share information on heart health throughout the prison.  

Rhona Martin 
Lead Specialist Community Stroke Nurse, Chest, Heart and Stroke Scotland

Enabling people to live life to the full

Rhona has worked on opportunistic screening for Atrial Fibrillation (AF) and Hypertension to improve primary identification of CVD, primarily stroke, in community settings. Rhona focused her work in community hubs situated in deprived areas, utilising space in Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland retail shops where health checks were carried out and healthy living advice given. By identifying more cases of undiagnosed conditions and encouraging healthier lifestyle behaviours, Rhona and her team hope to see a reduction in stroke and cardiovascular events in the future.

Helen Bremner 
Health Clinical Team Manager, South Angus Integrated Community Mental Health Team, NHS Tayside and Angus Health and Social Care Partnership  

Building hope for people affected by mental illness  

Helen is working to address the physical health inequalities for patients with severe and enduring mental illness who are receiving care within her service. She established focus sessions, planned, and delivered in a way which lined up with the individual needs of her patients to ensure that initiatives are co-produced with patients. The aim is to enable early identification of cardiovascular risk factors and provide access to information and community services to support risk reduction strategies.

This article was sponsored by The Queen's Nursing Institute Scotland

www.qnis.org.uk