Published: 21 November 2006
'Delivering Care, Enabling Health' requires expanded roles
An overarching strategy 'Delivering Care, Enabling Health' will give nurses, midwives and allied health professionals (NMAHPs) a far bigger role in the delivery of care, while ensuring that caring for, and empowering, patients remains at the heart of modern health services.
The proposals in the 'Review of Nursing in the Community,' also published recently, provide a blueprint for the future of nursing designed to fit in with the changing face of health care in Scotland.
With an increasing emphasis on anticipatory and community based care, this new approach will provide an opportunity to test and develop a new Community Health Nurse role.
Mr Kerr said:
"In the future I want to see a health service which is aimed at making sure fewer people get ill in the first place and when they do, that they are treated as locally as possible.
That will mean an increasingly important role for nurses, midwives and allied health professionals, and that's why we must update the way the profession works in Scotland.
In particular, testing and developing the new role of Community Health Nurse will aim to establish a single point of contact for people receiving care in their own homes. This is about building on experience - particularly in relation to delivering public health services.
A recent World Health Organisation report has highlighted the success of this approach.
Finally, I'm particularly pleased the new strategy seeks to enhance nursing's reputation as the caring profession.
The comfort, reassurance, and encouragement to get well that nurses, midwives and AHPs can provide should never be lost."
The Minister was joined at the launch by Olivia Giles, the Broadcaster and Meningitis campaigner who wrote a foreword to 'Delivering Care, Enabling Health'.
Olivia, who received extensive nursing care at St John's Hospital in Livingston in 2002 after contracting septicaemia, said:
"Good health care is about caring for people - with the emphasis on 'people' - to enable them as much as possible.
I am heartened to see that this principle is the linchpin of Delivering Care, Enabling Health.”
Both 'Delivering Care, Enabling Health' and the 'Review of Nursing in the Community' have been drawn up in partnership with staff representatives including the Royal College of Nursing, Amicus, UNISON, Queen's Nursing Institute - Scotland, the Royal College of General Practitioners, NHS Education Scotland and academic heads.
A spokesperson from the RCN said;
"RCN Scotland fully supports the overall theme and direction of Delivering Care, Enabling Health and the Review of Nursing in the Community.
Critical to the success of the Review will be the development sites that are now starting to take shape. RCN Scotland looks forward to engaging fully in these and ensuring nurses play a lead role in addressing the health inequalities in Scotland."
Scotland's Chief Nursing Officer Paul Martin added;
"Yesterdays announcement was about taking traditional values forward and applying them in a modern context.
That's why it was vital that we didn't lose sight of the reason NMAHPs are here - to care for, enable, support and comfort the people who use our services. I have no doubt those values will be upheld."
The new Community Nurse Pilot role will be tested & developed in four areas across Scotland and discussions are taking place with local Boards to choose the locations.
NHS Scotland already employs a limited number of Family Health Nurses whose role is comparable to that of a Community Health Nurse.
The Family Health Nurse position was commended in the recent 'WHO Europe Family Health Nursing Pilot in Scotland, Final Report.'
Further information:
Delivering Care, Enabling Health
The WHO Europe Family Health Nursing Pilot in Scotland: Final Report
Report of the Review of Nursing in the Community
RCN Scotland
Reshaping the NHS?: Workforce Planning in the National Health Service in Scotland
Scotland's Health on the Web (NHS Scotland)
NHS Quality Improvement Scotland: Home Page
Free Personal Care
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