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Background: The COVID-19 pandemic placed a huge strain on healthcare services around the world, including community services. Students also faced substantial disturbance to educational programmes. Student district nurses are usually employed members of staff and can be recalled to the workforce, whereas pre-registration students cannot. Aims: This paper explores the feelings and experiences of student district nurses during the first UK national lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic. An interpretative phenomenological approach was taken. Method: A semi structured 1:1 interview and focus group was held via zoom in July 2020. A total of eight student district nurses, who were all registered adult nurses, took part. Data was analysed using the Braun and Clarke model to identify themes. Results: The findings related to their experience of being a community adult registered nurse on the frontline, while also being a student district nurse. Three themes were identified from the analysis: anxiety and uncertainty, management of risk and teamwork. Conclusion: This study highlights the contribution that community nurses made in the clinical response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It adds to a paucity of literature available from this clinical setting and specifically from the viewpoint of a student district nurse. There is much written on the strains on hospital care, but it should be remembered that district nursing is the service that never shuts its doors because it has reached capacity. This study found that a lack of communication and uncertainty about their future as students contributed to heightened stress and anxiety. Teamwork and camaraderie are a vital aspect of any team and one that can support resilience in times of heightened stress. A lack of face-to-face interaction can lead to team members feeling isolated. Digital technology can be used to reduce this feeling when possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Health and Safety Executive have completed an inspection initiative focussing on the prevention and management of sharps injuries in forty NHS organisations. Health and safety breaches were found in 90% of the services visited and inspectors issued improvement notices to 45% of those NHS organisations. In this article Richard Griffith sets out the key findings of the inspection initiative and considers their impact on district nursing practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advocating for midwives in the UK has been number one on the Royal College of Midwives' agenda. During COVID-19, this has been no different [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author reflects on the psychological and physical impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. These include distress, grief and dying, struggles of the British National Health Service in dealing with the crisis as well as the anticipation of dealing with its aftermath, and the previous and upcoming conferences of the British Association of Urological Nurses.