The management of caseloads in district nursing services

Headnote

Abstract

Working in the community requires an additional set of skills from working in the acute sector and caseload management is a vital component of the district nurse role. Effective management ensures that the health and social needs of individuals, families, carers and communities are met using available resources. The move to a primary care focused-NHS has led to an increased pressure on the community nursing service, and nurses need a good knowledge of strategies to effectively manage their caseload. This article explores the principles of teamwork and the management of caseloads in community nursing. It explores questions of workload analysis, referral, delegation, skill mix and leadership.

Keywords

District nursing, community nursing, caseload management, teamwork, referral criteria

These keywords are based on the subject headings from the British Nursing Index. This article has been subject to double-blind review and checked using anti-plagiarism software. For related articles visit our online archive and search using the keywords

PHC691 Bain H, Baguley F (2012) The management of caseloads in district nursing services. Primary Health Care. 22, 4, 31-37. Date of acceptance: January 9 2012.

Aims and intendend learning outcomes

The aim of this article is to examine the underpinning principles, concepts and challenges for district nursing teams in managing caseloads in community healthcare settings.

After reading this article you should be able to:

* Discuss the principles of caseload analysis.

* Describe possible approaches to caseload management.

* Analyse the system of referral to caseloads.

* Outline the skills and knowledge required for effective caseload management.

Introduction

Over the past few years, changes have been made to the policies behind practice delivery. The focus is now on supporting people with long-term conditions (Department of Health (DH) 2005, Welsh Assembly Government 2007, Scottish Government 2009, Balanda et al 2010).

Greater demands are being made on community nursing because of an ageing population, complex care provision, the growing desire for end of life care at home and an ageing nursing workforce (Dickson et al 2011).

The four UK countries take differing policy approaches, partly due to the demographics of the countries, but also as a result of differing political stances since devolution. However, all the policies reinforce the message that keeping people out of hospital is desirable (Bain and...