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Nurses who are members of the QNI ’ s expert group say they need ‘ access to more education around all aspects of long Covid ’, says Ms Thrupp . ‘ Nurses are asking for a clear pathway of care to follow for their patients , and additional support to ensure marginalised groups , such as those with learning disabilities , are also being assessed , treated and referred into the long Covid services .’
Deputy Chief Nursing Offi cer for England Mark Radford says he is ‘ keen to ensure high-quality long Covid education , training and support is available to all nursing and midwifery colleagues across the country ’.
Mr Radford points to a range of educational materials that are being developed to support ‘ a wide understanding of the condition and its impact on individuals affected ’. This is being carried out ‘ collaboratively with colleagues in NHS England and NHS Improvement ’, he says .
Mark Radford
New ways of working
Long Covid may be a new condition but nurses have been building on their knowledge and experience to come up with new ways of working to support patients .
Nurses in the QNI ’ s expert group have shared how using a ‘ hybrid approach ’ ( a mix of face-to-face and virtual consultations ) has been ‘ very benefi cial ’, says Ms Thrupp . ‘ When used appropriately , this has provided patients with much-needed expert nursing time ,’ she says .
The use of digital approaches , including apps such as Living With ( see Resources ) has been successful in some areas , she says , through encouraging patients to log on , be aware of their symptoms and receive self-care advice .
She says the group has also shared some ‘ great examples ’ of multidisciplinary care , such as psychological and physical support being provided in the same building at the same appointment . ‘ This good practice could be standardised in time ,’ she says .
Many approaches discussed within the expert group have focused on the success of complementary therapies , such as breathing exercises and mindfulness , to support recovery , says Ms Thrupp . ‘ The most important message here is that the recovery process needs to be individualised to the patient ’ s needs . Understanding the potential of a range of approaches , as the research emerges , will be essential to the nurses ’ developing knowledge and application to practice .’
Despite these encouraging approaches to supporting long Covid patients , there is no ‘ magic bullet ’ for the condition , and nurses warn it is here for the long term . ‘ Long Covid is not going to go away , and in the next couple of years we ’ ll be fi nding people with this condition who are not even aware that they had Covid ,’ says Ms Aikman . And Ms Lewis suggests long Covid will become ‘ part of our everyday work , like asthma and diabetes ’.
For the present , and in the absence of established treatments , ‘ nurses need to help patients fi nd ways of living the best life they can with their symptoms until we understand enough to treat them ’, says Dr Maxwell .
That understanding of long Covid will develop as nurses share their knowledge . As Ms Lewis says : ‘ Talk to each other . Whether you ’ re a district nurse , a practice nurse or an ANP , everybody should be having a conversation about long Covid , because either directly or indirectly it ’ s going to have an impact on all of us .’
This August saw the launch of a free introductory course for long Covid , aimed at all healthcare professionals . the course is available via Health Education England ’ s e-learning platform ( see Resources ). It explains what is meant by long
Covid and post-Covid-19 syndrome , and covers such areas as common symptoms , investigations for complications and alternative diagnoses , links to emerging evidence bases and current NICE guidance . It also examines the kind of skills nurses need to deliver long Covid care .
HEE says work has begun on a second programme , which will be a more advanced module on long Covid . Work on both of these modules is being led by Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust . The next steps are to ‘ look at how we can work with colleagues across the wider multidisciplinary team to build upon the awareness this resource gives us ’, says Mr Radford .
Long Covid will become part of our everyday work , like asthma and diabetes
References 1 NIHR . Living with Covid19 . Second review . March 2021 . bit . ly / 3C6gyMV 2 ONS . Prevalence of ongoing symptoms following coronavirus infection in the UK . 4 November 2021 . bit . ly / 30d9d1j 3 NICE . Managing the long-term effects of COVID-19 . 2020 . nice . org . uk / ng188 4 NHS . Long-term effects of coronavirus ( long COVID ). October 2021 . bit . ly / 3krAALV 5 Stephenson T et al . Long covid — the physical and mental health of children and non-hospitalised young people 3 months after SARS-CoV-2 infection ; a national matched cohort study ( The CLoCk ) study . 2021 . Preprint . bit . ly / 3DmdGwZ 6 Health and Social Care Committee . Formal meeting ( oral evidence session ): Clearing the backlog caused by the pandemic . 21 September 2021 . bit . ly / 3c4gUc8 7 Lovet S . ‘ Only a fraction ’ of long Covid sufferers able to access NHS support clinics . Independent . 12 September 2021 . bit . ly / 3Hfl pim 8 NHS : Long-term effects of coronavirus ( long COVID ). bit . ly / 3qMY5mm
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