Our community nurses provide care to children and young people in Lambeth and Southwark. The team is divided into 3 areas of care: acute, long-term and complex care. Our extended team includes critical care nurses, palliative care nurses and paediatric nurse specialists.
Nurses that are new to working in the community will be well supported by a professional development nurse and highly experienced colleagues. There are excellent opportunities for training and development including study days, conferences and individual learning.
Hospital@home team
Our Hospital@home team are experienced nurses who provide nursing assessment, support and advice to children and families during acute periods of illness. They provide short-term nursing care to enable early discharge from hospital and liaise with the emergency department, reviewing patients at home to avoid admission. We facilitate 2 teams: one at Evelina London Children’s Hospital and one at King’s College Hospital. These teams provide rapid response and are able to carry out visits within 3 hours of referral, offering up to 3 visits a day if this is required, operating 7 days a week. As the service develops, we will also be able to support GPs with acutely unwell children by offering home support, monitoring and observation.
Community nurses
Our community nurses act as a bridge between hospital and home. We aim to improve the quality of life of children and their carers by helping them to become more competent in managing their condition and reducing the number of acute episodes leading to hospital admission. We are often the first point of contact for families and coordinate appropriate healthcare and support. The team offers generic support following planned or unplanned hospital admission, for dressing and wound care, intravenous antibiotics and oxygen saturation monitoring. We work closely with the Hospital@home teams, have close working relationships with the multi-disciplinary teams in the area and the GP local care networks and provide a 7 day service to children and families in Lambeth and Southwark.
Community nurses – complex care
Our multi-skilled team of continuing care nurses, outreach nurses and complex care school nurses, provide care and support to children and young people with complex care needs, living in our local community. The team supports families caring for children and young people who have a complex medical need as a result of disability, accident or illness, enabling them to be at home and attend school whenever possible. Working in partnership with families, we support children with long-term ventilation, tracheostomy care, assessments, enteral feeding support and provide education and advice to schools and social care.