Community Nurses Measure Up A national one day census, developed by nurses for nurses Thursday 24th April 2008

What have we been doing?

One of the main responsibilities of the project team is to raise awareness of the census and ensure ongoing communication.

We have developed various tools which provide information, these include:

• a communication strategy
• an information leaflet 
• a benefits document
• a telephone helpdesk
• bookmark , and
• poster

Developing these and making them available if the straightforward part, the difficult part to ensure that this information is distributed and cascaded throughout all community nursing teams.

This is where your help is needed.  All of the documents above are available for download and printing and we have already distributed packs to your local CHP leads.  As nursing input is vital to this project please take this opportunity to circulate this information to your team and colleagues, helping to ensure that they submit their census details and play their part in the success of the national census.

Training Sessions

Although all communication is vital, the most essential event of all for nursing teams is attendance at a Training Session.

Training sessions have been arranged throughout April 2008.  These sessions are open to all nursing staff and their support teams and will provide information on:

• the purpose and benefits of the census
• how to complete the census forms (both paper and electronic)
• how to return/submit completed forms
• the dataset definitions and guidance
• how to contact the support team, should you require help

Details of all the training sessions we are providing including dates, time and venues are included within the document: Training Session Venues  .

Reserving your place: Please contact the Census Support Team  by telephoning the helpdesk on 0131 275 6946 or by e-mailing the census team at data.development@isd.csa.scot.nhs.uk

Should you be unable to attend a session that is local to you, it may be possible to video conference into another session. If video conferencing is a more suitable option to you, please contact the Census Support Team  as soon as possible and we will arrange this for you.

Training Materials/Documents

We are aware the not everyone is able to attend a training session therefore we have made available all the documents that are discussed along with the presentation given.

• Guidance document - provides guidance and definitions to all the questions you will be asked
• Guide - provides you with a list of some of the benefits to you from completing the census as well as a list of all the things you will be asked in the form
• Training Presentation - a copy of the presentation give at the training sessions
• step by step guidance - provides you with a step by step guide to completing the census, also contains screen images of how the system will look
• Reference List - Health Problems - a list of all the options available for you to select
• Reference List - Interventions - a list of all the interventions available for you to select

We are aware that although these lists are extensive they will not contain every health problem or intervention that you may deal with or do. However when completing your form please select the item(s) that best fir and then record your comments in the field provided.

^{Please note that nurses are asked to complete the census by accessing an online form.  We are aware that IT can be an issue in some areas.  If you know of a problem within your area then please contact the  Census Support Team  and let us know what the issue is and we can look at alternative solutions.}

Previously:

User Reference Groups

These were the first of a series of sessions arranged by the project team and they took place between December 2007 and January 2008. 

CHP leads and Directors of Nursing were contacted and asked to nominate a minimum of 2 nurses from each discipline to attend.

At these sessions nurses worked through clinical scenarios, providing the actual terms and phrases used by nurses to record the care that they provide.  The terms and phrases were collated and have been used to provide the drop-down lists for nursing Interventions and health problems within the web-based submission system.

In total 6 User Reference Groups took place

The presentation given at these sessions is available:User Reference Group Presentation

National Nursing and Midwifery Workload and Workfoce Planning Project(NNMWWPP)

To help disseminate details of the Community Nurse Census, awareness session were carried out at 5 of the the recent NNMWWPP briefing sessions.

The presentation given at these sessions is available:Briefing Sessions Presentation

Awareness Sessions

Awareness sessions were organised throughout February and March 2008 with the purpose of keeping nursing teams informed about the census.

The sessions took place in Glasgow and Edinburgh, Video Conferencing was also offered.

Census Pilots

To help ensure the robustness of the dataset two Health Boards (Fife and Lanarkshire) volunteered to take part in a small paper based pilot.  This will follow a similar format to the actual Census and focused on the 14th February 2008 as the pilot census date.

Details of the scope and purpose of the pilot are available:Pilot Scope 

It is planned to undertake an electronic pilot once the dataset and web system have been established.  Further details about this will follow.