Nursing team works together to support children

We received a great new story this month from one of our amazing staff nurses.

Read on to find out how Louise Robertson worked with others from the school nursing team to organise and co-ordinate care for children with continence issues…

“As a staff nurse within the school nursing team we have many roles and responsibilities, one of which is supporting children and young people with continence issues.

With changes to staffing through retirement, and newer team members joining us due to service investment within the Cumnock and Doon Valley area, we looked at how to improve our support, with timeous reviews of all children using continence products or who are in need of continence supports.

I took on this responsibility as I had some previous experience. We needed to ensure accurate record keeping to highlight children who used continence products. 

I identified all children currently using continence products and searched to find when the last reviews and review calls had been done for each child. I allocated a number of children to each nurse within our team, including myself, to ensure each had an even caseload.  

Using our secure shared drive, we collated all the details for children using continence products, then ascertained when they would need a full annual assessment and phone reviews. Working as a team we identified what was required and I signposted them to all information and resources to ensure high quality care and best practice was delivered for all our patients.

This approach to working has now been running for the past few months and so far it appears to be going really well. Each nurse has one phone review and one assessment per month to complete, so their caseloads are manageable whilst we continue to support emotional health and wellbeing and numerous immunisation clinics every week.

We have all started building professional relationships with the families allocated to us to help promote positive outcomes for each child and young person that we work with.”

The nursing leadership team were also delighted with this outcome, adding some comments of their own:

“It’s fabulous to see our empowered staff constantly striving for the most up-to-date research and best practice that will greatly benefit our children and families. 

This will ensure that all of our children who need continence support will receive timeous reviews and will have a contact for any changes to their health needs. 

Well done to the Staff Nursing team in the Cumnock and Doon Valley are for taking the initiative and updating the systems and processes to benefit all of our children and young people requiring continence support.”

Well done to everyone on the school nursing team who was involved in this fantastic effort!