National Survey of District Nurse Team Leaders
4 July 2023
The Queen’s Nursing Institute is calling on District Nurse Team Leaders in the UK to participate in the first major national survey of the profession since 2019.
The new survey of the District Nursing workforce comes at a crucial time in the profession, when change has become the new normal in the planning and delivery of services, and widespread evidence of increasing demands placed on a workforce that has not grown to meet growing population need. New models of care have emerged and services have additionally had to adapt to the pressures of the pandemic.
The information gathered will be used to analyse trends in the work done by District Nurses, how it is organised, what support it receives and where additional support is needed. The survey will allow a close comparison with the situation in 2019 when the last similar report was published.
This evidence gathered is of equal importance to the NHS organisations, community interest companies and social enterprises that employ District Nurses.
The survey is particularly for those leading and managing District Nursing services. The QNI will publish the results of the survey later this year.
The QNI has a proud history of advancing the community specialism of District Nursing; the charity was originally founded to educate and organise the District Nursing workforce on a national basis and for over 130 years has led the way in championing healthcare in the home and community.
District Nursing is the bedrock of healthcare delivery in the community and yet the profession has suffered from poor understanding, and lack of investment, by politicians and system leaders. The number of District Nurses has been falling in recent years, despite an increase in demand led by a growing and ageing population who are living with multiple complex health conditions.
To help us create the evidence needed to argue for greater investment in the District Nursing workforce, we need nurses to give us the numbers and the intelligence about how services are delivered by their teams, in their area. We will analyse this data and produce a report that articulates the needs of the District Nursing service on a national basis. This evidence will be of crucial importance to politicians and system leaders.
Dr Crystal Oldman CBE, Chief Executive of the QNIThe survey is being conducted by the International Community Nursing Observatory (ICNO), led by Professor Alison Leary MBE, Chair of Healthcare and Workforce Modelling at London South Bank University, also ICNO Director, and Dave Bushe, Project Manager and ICNO Data Analyst at the QNI.
The survey has now closed.
ENDS
Notes
The 2019 report can be viewed on the QNI website here: https://qni.org.uk/resources/district-nursing-today-the-view-of-district-nurse-team-leaders-in-the-uk/
Back to News