Anyone work as a community nurse?

[Orangelover]

Just that really. Thinking about my options away from frontline acute nursing and love the idea of community nursing. Did a lot as a student and loved it and feel it's time to return.

What are the main pressures working in community services? Pros and cons? I want to be as well informed as possible if I decide this route and if I was lucky enough to have an interview have some good ideas of issues to talk around if necessary

I worked as a community nurse until 2016. I'd say it presents difference challenges to ward based care. You will often be working alone, making autonomous decisions and under time pressure due to times visits for things such as IVs or Insulin. The definite pros are slightly more favourable hours, cons maybe different types of stress. There is generally lots of scope to develop into particular areas of interest. Ie wound care or palliative care. Good luck

I did 2015-2017. Really enjoyed the work and the variety. Huge scope for developing expertise and specialising. Very different from ward nursing, different challenges faced but overall I'd say less stressful.

I left because we were brought out by a private company who had no idea how good care needs to be carried out. We were micro-managed in terms of time (had to justify if you were over 20 mins for a palliative visit etc.) and my lovely team left one by one. Sadly this is happening everywhere.

I left to work in a hospice where for the most part we can give real care.

I've just been offered a community nursing job. I work in a HASU.
I've got to get out of my ward that is poorly run with too many chiefs.
I've close friends from my training days that work on the community that seem a lot more happy than our ward based counterparts.
Go for it. You can always go back if needed.

Main pressures- poor hospital discharges, sicker and more complex patients in the community, GP support (or lack of!) and out of hours support.

I'm a community OT so I know it's not the same, but I'd never go back to ward work.

I love being able to see patients in their own homes. It's interesting and feels more holistic.

We have regular community MDTs where we can brainstorm tricky patients with the nursing team.

I work in the community. I must say that I really love it but a lot of nurses see it as an easy option compared to acute roles.
The nurses go out with very long lists, can be very lonely, medical support is highly variable. As someone said earlier very poor discharges. Patients who do not want to return to or go to hospital which is a huge issue to manage especially now!
But you do get such a lot of positive feedback from patients, you are really quite autonomous. In my experience teams are supportive of each other.
I have known a few nurses to return to the acute setting after being accused of various things by patients and relatives- they felt very vulnerable visiting alone in peoples homes.
There is quite a lot of opportunities for training and development.
Definitely give it a try if it's not for you you can always return to acute work