Unveiling the Patient Experience of Community Nursing in Richmond upon Thames

Community health services are a critical part of the NHS. They include district nursing, end of life care, physiotherapy, podiatry, sexual health services, health visiting and much more. This extensive and diverse collections of services and specialisms provide essential services; and yet they are often overlooked and unknown. We dived into the Community Nursing world, here is what we found.

This report focuses on feedback from over 270 patients who received care from the Kingston and Richmond NHS Foundation Trust (KRFT) community nursing team. It aims to analyse their experiences, showcasing both the high quality of care received and the challenges encountered, ultimately proposing potential solutions for service improvement.

To gain a deeper understanding, we shadowed community nurses during their home visits, providing valuable insights into both patient experiences and the daily realities of community nursing. The report is intended to inform the commissioning of community services across South West London and, more broadly, to contribute to the limited published data on patient experiences within NHS community services. We hope that other organisations will utilise this report's findings to enhance patient care nationwide.

Findings

Overall, this is a very positive report. Patients have told us: that community nurses treat them with kindness, compassion and respect; that community nurses understand patient’s vulnerability and take actions to connect with patients in order to build trust; and that they value the honest communication that the service provides.

Nonetheless some areas can still benefit some improvement improvement:

  • Clearer communication to patients regarding timing of visits and what to do in an emergency or if a patient has questions
  • Staff understanding and implementing the NHS Accessible Information Standard, with particular relevance for hearing impairments
  • Kingston Hospital staff knowing what information is needed when making referrals to the community nursing team
  • Creating links with the Richmond GP alliance to improve communication and referrals from GP practices
  • Reviewing systems in place to ensure end of life patients get the care and support they need
  • Reviewing systems around prescriptions and medications for housebound patients, particularly relating to expediting prescriptions
  • Reviewing systems in place to enable joined up working between primary, secondary and community services with SWL NHS

Read our Community Nursing Report

Patient Experience of Community Nursing in Richmond upon Thames

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