This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
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Family Health Nurses
31/10/2003
The role of Family Health Nurses in the health care of families and local communities was the subject of a special conference held at Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh today.
Delegates from Spain, Denmark, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Estonia and Germany joined over 150 delegates from Scotland and the UK.
Scotland has been participating as the lead site in a World Health Organisation (WHO) Europe pilot project looking at the role of the Family Health Nurse.
The pilot project has now been running for two years with nurses from NHS Highland, Western Isles, Orkney and Argyll and Clyde participating.
A Family Health Nurse is a skilled generalist, similar to the approach that a GP takes. This differs from the current system of specialist community nurses who focus on particular age groups or types of need, such as the elderly, young families or the mentally ill.
The main roles are:
- Act as a point of contact for the public
- Have a real breadth of knowledge about their community and the health issues important to the people who live there
- Act as a health resource for families as a whole, at all stages of life
- Combine the care of family members who are ill with health protection and promotion of the whole family
The pilot has currently focused on the needs of rural communities but Health Minister Malcolm Chisholm today announced that it will now be piloted in an urban area and NHS Glasgow has agreed to be the site.
The Minister said:
"We have evidence of the benefits of family health nursing in remote and rural communities but we cannot assume the same outcome in an urban area. However, the time is right to test the model in an urban setting.
"I am delighted that NHS Greater Glasgow has agreed to be our pilot site. Their involvement will add a valuable dimension to our body of knowledge on family health nursing."
Commenting on the input of Family Health Nurses, Mr Chisholm said:
"We need to invest in public health skills in tandem with clinical disease management if we want to make a long term impact on our mortality rates.
"The focus of the Family Health Nurse programme provides a means of developing health improvement skills where it really matters - at the point of contact with families and communities.
"This is perhaps the most radically different aspect of the Family Health Nurse role. An approach where the nurse engages with families in a more focused and targeted way."
The Minister provided real examples of the work of the nurses and their impact:
- One family health nurse told of a subsidised healthy eating initiative which has been developed in partnership with members of the community, local council and health colleagues. This is a real example of giving ownership of health back to the wider population.
- For another Family Health Nurse, their different approach to working with families gave them the confidence to deal with an underlying problem of alcohol and physical abuse. Before, the would have just treated the physical symptoms of the individual. Now they had the skills to create an agreed action plan with the whole family.