Student nurses from the University of Gloucestershire partnered with GP practice teams to reach out to the community with health support in the Forest of Dean.

At Vantage Point in Mitcheldean, 51 people were given health checks by a team of student nurses, identifying patients who may not have been aware they had high blood pressure or be at risk of Type 2 diabetes.

Sometimes working age adults may not visit their GP or take their blood pressure reading through other ways like home testing so the event aimed to help people understand the importance of knowing what their blood pressure reading is and how this can be an indicator for health.

Practice teams were able to update records for those attendees registered with a Forest of Dean GP.

The Nurses on Tour programme gives trainee nurses valuable first-hand experience of primary care and supporting people’s health across Gloucestershire.

Sarah Rogers, Lead Nurse for Gloucestershire Primary Care Training Hub, NHS Gloucestershire, who is working to make primary care opportunities more attractive to student nurses said:

“In addition to blood pressure checks, the team offered body mass index (BMI) checks (a tool to estimate the amount of body fat to assess risk factors for certain health conditions) and point of care hba1c testing as part of their diabetes screening.

The project continues to support student nurses to understand the role of primary care nursing, with some of the first students now working in our surgeries in Gloucestershire which is a mark of its success.

The project continues to expand its work with partners across the health and care system to ensure areas of health inequity and inequality are served.”

Members of Forest of Dean Integrated Locality Partnership (ILP) initiated the event which was well supported by both staff and employers at Vantage Point. The Active Wellbeing Lead from Forest of Dean District Council was on hand to support and signpost people to local services.

Results included:

  • Blood pressure
  • 4% had a higher than normal reading and were given advice
  • 9 % were known to have high blood pressure and were given further advice
  • Pulse
  • 9% tachycardia (increased heart rate)
  • Diabetes
  • 88% were identified as pre-diabetic
  • Know your risk score (diabetes)
  • *Low – 18.3%
  • *Medium – 38.77%
  • *High – 28.5%
  • *Very High – 8.16%

*(excluding 1 known diabetic and 1 known pre-diabetic).

Rakhee Aggarwal, Head of the University of Gloucestershire’s School of Health and Social Care, said:

“We’re delighted that our students had the opportunity to work with NHS colleagues on this important initiative and make a tangible difference to the health of members of the community in the Forest of Dean.

In alerting patients to medical conditions they may have been unaware of previously, the value of these types of healthcare activities couldn’t be clearer.

We’re extremely proud to collaborate with our local NHS partners to improve the health and wellbeing of local communities.

It is absolutely fundamental to what we do as a school at the University in developing the health and social care professionals of the future.

Health support projects benefit not only the local community, importantly they also provide valuable and unique learning opportunities in primary care for our students, mentored fantastically well by Sarah and her NHS colleagues, and show them the wider opportunities available to them when they qualify.”

Notes:

ILPs are partnerships made up of local Government, NHS, Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) sector, housing and increasingly communities, people and wider partners such as police, education etc. They work with each other to bring services together and plan how they are delivered to their local populations.