12 60 seconds with… Danielle Watts Rapid response nurse Tell us a bit about your role In a nutshell it’s all about seeing, treating and managing acutely unwell patients at home to prevent hospital admission. My team at North Mid gets referrals from GPs, health professionals in the community, London Ambulance Service, NHS 111 and our emergency department. We are that bridge between the hospital and community services. What’s your background? I started out working in EDs for three years all around London and then I went into intensive care. I worked abroad for a bit in the Caribbean in rapid response and when I came back I knew I wanted to continue in that area. What might a typical day look like? We are likely to be seeing about seven patients a day, driving from one to the other. These are patients who need more support than a district nurse can provide so their cases are escalated to us. They may have pneumonia, or be dealing with the exacerbation of a chronic condition, or have an acute infection. We can prescribe and administer antibiotics. We will make sure they are responding to the treatment and give them lots of health advice. This job suits people who are confident being autonomous. One of us is on call in the ED each identifying patients that we recognise as suitable to go home under the team’s care. The patient will have been triaged, and seen by a doctor, and then we assess if we think we can manage them back in their home or the community. This could take as little as an hour, and we are usually able to find about five patients a day that would benefit. What’s the response been from patients and staff? Patients love the service. They’re getting the same level of care but at home away from the stress and anxiety of hospital. This is especially true of our elderly patients. Staff are also very engaged, they understand the benefits of this approach and we are seeing our referrals from ED rise significantly. The key thing is we are acting in the patient’s best interests. When we get the call, we are there within two hours. What do you see as the challenges? We need to attract more acute nurses into the roles and be able to retain them. Ideally, we would also be able to refer direct into specialties and bypass ED if we needed to. Of course, like all services we are stretched but this is definitely the future. Instead of patients being admitted to wards they are coming under our care. We just need to be able to keep up with the demand. What do you think the next five years will bring? I think the service is going to expand in a big way. With our ageing population, this is the way forward. We just need to make sure we are able to offer the necessary training to ensure we have staff with the right skill set. How do you like to unwind? I love to travel and to dance. I recently took a trip to Texas and got to do some line-dancing. I also really enjoy continuing to expand my knowledge, so you’ll often find me doing a course at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Taking care of your wellbeing Every day, our staff go above and beyond to care for our patients. Please take the time to also look after your own wellbeing: • 24/7 helpline (out of hours) contact Care First on 0800 174319 (24/7 service) for emotional and psychological support or access online via carefirst-lifestyle.co.uk; login details can be found on Freenet • Contact the Samaritans (on 116 123), NHS Helpline (111) or your GP • Cost of living worries can have a huge impact on our mental health – visit our financial wellbeing page on Freenet • Visit Freenet for a range of resources, information and other wellbeing tips
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