Living well in older age in the community: research into nurse-led interventions

This themed research event is part of a series of events by the QNI’s Community Nursing Research Forum and is open to all community nurses interested in research. Chaired by Forum lead, Ben Bowers, at this event we were joined by three Forum members who will be presenting their own research.

Speakers

• Dr Helen Lyndon, Consultant Nurse Older People, Cornwall NHS Foundation Trust

Helen’s background is firmly rooted in community nursing with previous roles as a district nurse, advanced nurse practitioner, community matron and community nursing leader. She now works as a consultant nurse for older people in a clinical academic role combining clinical practice with research.

She will be presenting her PhD research study: The Holistic Assessment and care Planning in Partnership Intervention (HAPPI) study. This mixed methods study developed, implemented and tested the feasibility of a nurse-led assessment and care planning intervention for community-dwelling older people who live with frailty.

• Ashley Shield, Nurse Specialist, Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust

Ashley will be presenting his research ‘Community-based nurses’ knowledge, attitudes and practices of nutritional care with older people: Results from a UK survey’.

Ashley is a nurse specialist leading a frailty team in Newcastle upon Tyne community services. For the past 4 years, his team has worked proactively finding frailer older people using GP data and delivering comprehensive geriatric assessments and exercises in their own homes.

Ashley’s research sought to ascertain current nutritional knowledge and training needs of community-based nurses caring for older people in the UK. His team conducted a cross-sectional, anonymised, online survey of nurses’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices related to older people’s nutrition. Most respondents undertook nutrition screening and had confidence in providing nutritional advice and ease of identifying those in need was high. However, some aspects of nutritional knowledge were less complete, including the recommended daily intakes of protein and fibre. High confidence in delivering nutritional advice contrasted with uncertainty around some aspects of nutritional knowledge, suggesting opportunities to improve training on the nutritional needs of older people.

• Dr Diane Bunn, Associate Professor of Nursing Research, University of East Anglia

Diane’s core areas of research are hydration care for older people in care homes and the community, and impact of infectious diseases in care homes. She adopts collaborative and inclusive approaches, working alongside care home residents, staff and the wider multi-professional team in her research.

She will be presenting a broad overview of our current hydration care research, focusing on the poor diagnostic utility of common signs and symptoms for dehydration and how best to support older care home residents to drink well. and/or watch the recording below.

Other masterclasses in the series:

• 4 March 2024 – Developing Research Questions.
• 15 May 2024 – Choosing appropriate research methods.
• 25 September 2024 – Conducting systematic reviews and critical literature reviews.