The challenges to public health in Scotland are enormous. Diabetes, obesity and an ageing population are just some of the uphill battles facing our health professionals.
While all health staff play their part in improving the national picture, the nursing workforce – and that includes Midwives, Health Visitors, Occupational Health Workers and School Nurses – is in a prime position to make the biggest difference.
Nurses are all about public health; that’s what they do.
Whether it’s general hospital nursing, specialist nursing such as alcohol or sexual health, they’re not only treating patients but also promoting those vital health messages at the same time.
And the sooner those messages start, the better the likely outcome for all of us.
In fact, that advice begins even before a child is born.
Not long after that little blue line appears on the pregnancy test kit, the advice starts coming in. And we’re not talking Auntie Jean’s opinions on the necessity for a vest all year round.
As soon as mum-to-be begins her antenatal checks, nursing staff are there to help not only baby, but mum-to-be too.
There’s advice on healthy eating and exercise, as well as smoking and alcohol consumption.
It’s a perfect opportunity to start drip-feeding those vital messages – after all, good health is not just for pregnancy, it’s for life.
Health Visitors work alongside Midwives to continue that work. They’re best placed to help families and young children as they offer support and educate right the way through pregnancy to a child’s fifth birthday.
Their remit includes offering help with feeding, weaning, development checks and providing mums with specific support such as with post-natal depression.
And once Junior is ready to learn his alphabet, the baton is handed over to the School Nurse who oversees his development checks, immunisation, health and the sniggering sex education lessons.
Meanwhile, out in the community, the District Nurse is doing her stuff; treating patients, many of them elderly, in their own homes, helping to keep hospital admissions and readmissions to a minimum.
In the workplace the public health campaigning continues with another branch of nursing – Occupational Health.
Here it’s all about keeping staff fit and well through safe working practices; preventing work-related diseases, ergonomics and health surveillance, such as hearing and vision tests, lung function as well as immunisations.
With all that knowledge and professionalism being directed at us it’s a wonder we’re not the healthiest nation on the planet.
Sadly, Scotland still regularly appears at the top of the health charts for all the wrong reasons.
Our health revolution is still very much a work in progress, but with Scotland’s dedicated army of nursing professionals we’re in with a fighting chance.