District Nursing
District nurses provide nursing care in people’s homes for individuals that are unable to make it to their GP surgery. Caring for a variety of patients with more complex needs, we focus our attention on providing effective care to prevent hospital admissions.
One of the benefits of working in district nursing is building the personal relationships with clients. You get the opportunity to build a better relationship with patients, and get to know them, and become involved in the social aspect of their care, not just their medical concerns.
As a service the district nursing team continues to evolve and we are committed to the professional development of our staff, ensuring they are fully supported within their roles.
We offer great career progression opportunities with options to progress to Community Nurse Practitioner or gain the qualification of Specialist Practitioner District Nurse by undertaking the District Nursing course through Queen Margaret University.
Video: Hear from the East Lothian District Nursing Team
Hospital to Home
There are currently patients in hospital waiting to get home but have no care packages available to support them at home. To reduce wait times in hospitals the Hospital to Home team was set up to help facilitate these discharges. The Hospital to Home team consists of experienced hospital care workers, who have been trained to look after people in the East Lothian community.
This team will care for individuals in their own homes until a social care package becomes available.
Video: Hear from the Hospital to Home team
Hospital at Home
The Hospital at Home team are an alternative to hospital admission looking after acutely unwell older adults in their own homes.
The team comprises of a wide variety of medical professionals; consultants, doctors, advanced practice clinicians, nurses, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, dieticians, and pharmacy support; who collectively work together to provide a comprehensive geriatric assessment and bring the hospital to the patient.
Working directing with the patients and their family members, Hospital at Home are an incredibly supportive team who work collaboratively to provide the best possible care to patients.
The team is dynamic, incredibly supportive and offers plenty of opportunities to develop and enhance your skills.
Video: Hear from the Hospital at Home team
Hospital at Home
The Palliative Care Team are a specialist team of nurses who provide palliative, end of life care within individual’s homes. An incredibly rewarding and patient focused role, palliative care nurses provide a very personalised service looking after individuals in their own environment, supporting their wishes, wherever they want to be.
Video: Hear from the Palliative Care Team
School Nursing
School Nursing involves working directly with and within communities to enhance the lives of children, young people and their families. By utilising the GIRFEC model we apply holistic approaches to provide health education and tier 1 interventions for a wide range of health needs.
The teamwork with a School Nursing Pathway that covers 10 key priorities, emotional health and wellbeing, child protection, sexual health, domestic abuse, homelessness, youth justice, young carers, substance misuse and transitions.
The School Nursing role allows us to work closely with education and third sector services so that in partnership we can meet the needs of children and young people and ensure their voices are heard.
Community Vaccination Team
The Community Vaccination Team deliver routine immunisation to school age pupils across Lothian.
We administer Tetanus, Diphtheria, and Polio vaccine to S3 pupils, Human Papilloma Virus vaccine to S1 pupils, and seasonal ‘flu vaccine to all primary 1 to secondary 6 pupils. We also deliver BCG vaccine for neonates. We cover East Lothian, West Lothian, Midlothian and City of Edinburgh.
We work closely with young people to ensure that vaccination is accessible and timeous. We also work with schools to ensure that staff are supported and able to deal with any concerns that pupils/parents/carers may have.
Our vaccination programmes are delivered in schools and community venues across the locality ensuring equity of access for children and young people.
Video: Hear from the Community Vaccination Team
Primary Care Nursing
Care When It Counts (CWIC)
The Care When It Counts (CWIC) Service provides a unique same-day appointment service supporting over 40,000 patients registered at four East Lothian GP Surgeries.
We are an experienced, multidisciplinary team of Nurse Practitioners, Advanced Nurse Practitioners, GPs and Physician Associates. We have a variety of clinical practice experiences and have undertaken extensive training in patient history taking, clinical examination and non-medical prescribing. This enables the team to assess health needs and determine plans for care through autonomous decision making, care planning, care management and initiating appropriate investigations or referrals to secondary care.
Video: Hear from the Care When It Counts (CWIC) Team
Community Treatment and Care Service (CTACS)
CTACS is a nurse led primary care service which provides a range of treatment room services across East Lothian including removal of sutures/staples after operations or injuries; wound care (including management of leg ulcers or wounds after surgery), doppler assessment, ear irrigation, vitamin B12 injections, and some blood tests requested by specialist hospital teams.
The service operates Monday to Friday and the nursing team currently operate from bases in East Lothian Community Hospital; Musselburgh Primary Care Centre; Dunbar, Tranent, Prestonpans and Harbours Medical Practices, and the Edington Hospital, North Berwick.
Video: Hear from the Community Treatment and Care Service (CTACS) Team
Primary Care Vaccination Team (PCVT)
The role of the Vaccination Team in East Lothian is to provide a range of health protection services to residents across the county. The PCVT manage all community-based vaccinations out with school settings from age 5+.
These include:
- Covid vaccinations
- Flu vaccinations
- Shingles and pneumococcal vaccinations
Certain vaccinations recommended by General Practitioners or consultants due to specific health conditions.
The team operate from several venues across the county including:
- Musselburgh Primary Care Centre
- Edington Hospital, North Berwick
- East Lothian Community Hospital
In addition, the team provide vaccinations across several other settings including care homes and outreach via our Vaccination Bus visiting a number of areas across the county and citizens in their own homes, for individuals who are unable to attend vaccination centres.
