Caring for people with multiple sclerosis who use cannabis for symptom control.

Research suggests that a large proportion of people living with multiple sclerosis (PwMS) are using cannabis to self-manage symptoms, or at least believe there are potential benefits in using this drug. Since community nurses are frontline caregivers, they are likely to encounter PwMS who use cannabis within the home setting. The literature base surrounding this topic is largely driven by quantitative research examining the effectiveness of cannabis as a medicine. This review found that qualitative research exploring the experiences of PwMS who use cannabis is lacking worldwide and is completely absent within UK nursing literature. PwMS using cannabis may not feel safe discussing this with health professionals, as they might fear being judged. This literature review discusses how people perceive the effectiveness of cannabis in helping symptoms associated with MS, while also considering the stigma and legal concerns people face. This review may help community nurses inform their practice and enhance person-centred relationships between them and PwMS.

Learning to deal with crisis in the home: Part 2 - preparing preregistration students.

The global shift of health care is from acute services to community and primary care. Therefore, registrants must be prepared to work effectively within diverse settings. This article is the second in a series discussing the preparation of nurses for contemporary health-care challenges in the community. In it, we outline the design, implementation, and evaluation of simulated emergency scenarios within an honours degree-level, pre-registration nursing curriculum in Scotland. Over 3 years, 99 final-year students participated in interactive sessions focusing on recognition and management of the deteriorating patient and emergency care. Clinical scenarios were designed and delivered collaboratively with community practitioners. Debriefing challenged the students to reflect on learning and transferability of skills of clinical reasoning and care management to the community context. Students considered the scenarios to be realistic and perceived that their confidence had increased. Development of such simulation exercises is worthy of further debate in education and practice.

Learning to deal with crisis in the home: Part 1--developing community simulation scenarios.

Contemporary health care is increasingly being located in the community. From the evident changes in demographics and general health, it can be derived that the people whom student nurses care for are likely to have multiple comorbidities and be vulnerable to clinical deterioration. These nurses are required to develop a range of transferrable skills to meet the demands of the population. The challenge for educators of preregistration student nurses is to develop educational strategies to prepare them with the skills, knowledge, and confidence necessary to recognise and manage deterioration appropriately in any context. This article is the first of two papers discussing the stimulus, design, and delivery of an educational innovation that focuses on the recognition and management of the deteriorating patient. The article explores current literature about community-focused simulation highlighting the potential learning opportunities resulting from contextualising simulation scenarios specific to the community setting.