Community Nursing
A community nurse is a specialist adult nurse role, where nursing care is co-ordinated and delivered to housebound patients, avoiding unnecessary admission to hospital. Community nurses work autonomously to care for a patient’s holistic needs, respond to the needs of vulnerable adults, and ensure continuity of care following referral from acute care, rehabilitation units, GPs and other agencies. Watch our video below to find out more!
What is a Community nurse?
As a community nurse you will have a varied career where no two days will be the same. Below is a summary of what the role of a community nurse in the UK may involve.
Skills Key
District Nursing
District nursing care is mainly provided in patients’ homes and sometimes clinics or in general practitioner surgeries. District nursing services are generally for people aged 18 years and over. The size of the teams varies according to demographic area, caseload size and patient dependency. As a team member you will have an allocated list of patients to visit daily, the workload often changes during your shift according to the need to respond to urgent new referrals so you will need to be flexible and adaptable to these changes.
Skills:
Home Visiting
You will visit patients in their own home, and you are a “guest in the patient’s home”. You will see different levels of deprivations and wealth in the areas you work in. Homes are not set up for delivering nursing care and the challenge is to be able to adapt and provide this care safely and to the same level of cleanliness as in a hospital environment.
The way in which medications are administered and managed is different in
the community setting.
Skills:
Physical Requirements
You will need to be comfortable with traveling to visit your patients. You may
need to walk a considerable distance to get from one patient’s home to another. The use of a car is more relevant for community nurses working in the outer London areas as public transport is a little less frequent and greater distances between locations of patients to be visited. You need to be
aware that you will have to carry your equipment that you need to treat your
patients. Provision of appropriate back packs or wheelie bags is available.
Skills:
Lone Working
As a community nurse you will be working on your own without direct supervision. Each Trust will have a lone worker policy which will outline the practices and procedures that you and your manager need to follow to stay safe. Though you are working alone, you will have contact numbers for advice and support throughout your shift. The provision of personal safety alarms and other personal safety systems are used.
Skills:
Patient Group
The majority of the patients you will see will have long term conditions that may include diabetes, cardiovascular disease, respiratory diseases such as COPD, cancer, neurologic diseases such as Parkinson disease, multiple sclerosis, dementia care needs, renal urological conditions and muscular skeletal conditions. Some patients, in addition to their physical health needs, may also have a learning disability or a chronic mental health problem. Another major area of care is the provision and support “end of life care” at home.
Skills:
Key Clinical Skills
As a community nurse you will need a number of key skills to fulfil your role.
SKILLS OF A COMMUNITY NURSE
- Intravenous Therapy
- Nursing assessment and care planning
- Palliative Care
- Medicines Management
- Bladder and bowel management
- Physiological observations and diagnostic tests
- Wound and leg ulcer assessment
- Nutritional Support
Community Nursing Candidate Skills and Experience Checklist
This checklist will help determine your previous community nursing experience in your own country. The purpose of the checklist is to give you and your potential employer an indication of where you would be comfortable working and how they can support you in your future skills development.
Take Our Community Nursing Quiz
Take our short quiz to find out if you have the right skills to pursue a career in becoming a Community Nurse.
Take Our Quiz
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Your score indicates that you may need to do further research and study before becoming a Community Nurse, click on the links below to find out more…
Your score indicates that you have many of the skills a Community Nurse will need, but test yourself further by downloading our checklist…
Your score indicates that you are ready to pursue a career as a Community Nurse, contact one of our specialist recruitment agencies to discuss how you can apply.

View Our Webinar Videos
To learn more about Community Nursing please view our recent webinar
Case Studies
The following case studies have been provided by two community nurses, who were recruited from the Philippines and India. The purpose of the case studies is to give you a comparison of the differences in working as a community nurse in the UK to your own country.
Case Study: Philippines
Community nursing is set up differently in the Philippines from how it is here in UK. Community nursing care in the Philippines is mainly focused on the primary health prevention care, including but not limited to family
planning, mother and child immunisations, school children
immunisations, pre and post-partum check-ups, tuberculosis
screening, detection and treatment, nutrition program and education, and coordination to the borough officials and other services for the health program planning and services.
Case Study: India
Comparing Community health services in India and the UK is a difficult task both countries have their own way of tackling health care related problems and providing best health care at a patient’s home. Health care in India is divided into 3 levels Primary, Secondary and Tertiary which is a combination of Public and private sectors providing care to the citizens were as in the UK the NHS is providing the maximum care to the public.
Useful Links
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If you have completed a nursing or midwifery qualification and want to relocate, find out how to apply here.
Are you a registered nurse and based outside the UK but looking to relocate?
Nursing in the Community – The Queen’s Nursing Institute
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