About the Long Covid Nurse Group

The QNI established the Long Covid Nurse Group to examine issues and practice related to the management of Long Covid in community, primary care and social care settings.

The group was initially set up in 2021 and the work of the network are supported through funding from the National Garden Scheme.

While the national and international vaccination campaigns have limited the number of severe illnesses and deaths resulting from Covid19 infection, society is experiencing a wave of physical and emotional health problems as people, family and carers live with the ongoing impacts of the virus on society.

Physical and emotional support is needed beyond those experiencing symptoms, as there is a ripple effect on the family members, carers, and friends.

Key Aims of the Group

To use the combined insight, expertise, knowledge and intelligence of the group to inform the Long Covid agenda by articulating the voice of community nursing. This will be articulated by:

• Defining and shaping the role and contribution of community and primary care nurses in supporting people living with Long Covid in the community
• Advising and raising awareness of the impact of Long Covid service delivery on the community and primary care workforce
• Advocating for peoples’ ‘lived experience’ of Long Covid and highlighting the impact of de-conditioning and the variability of symptoms
• Recognising and highlighting carers’ experience of Long Covid and the lack of support for this group.

Key Outputs

• To collect and share existing experiences of good practice models and have input into developing models of care provision
• Explore opportunities to have input and influence into research to raise the awareness of nursing input into Long Covid
• Explore opportunities for members to attend high-level stakeholder meetings to represent the ‘voice of nursing’ and contribute to publications promoting the nursing role and Long Covid service delivery
• Input into the update of the QNI Living with Covid19 (Long Covid) resource for community and primary care nurses

The network is open to all healthcare professionals interested in Long Covid see our FAQs on the Meetings and Events page. To join the network, please register your details here and tick Long Covid Nurse Group under ‘Mailing Lists’.  You can also sign up for general email updates from us and join other QNI networks.