Nursing Times published an update of work being undertaken in the UK to create a practical guide for nurses on how to support people with Long Covid. It includes a detailed write up of how the guide was created, as well as tips for others attempting to create such a document for other illnesses or professions.
The process to create this guide would be a good model for therapists, psychologists and psychiatrists who want to draw up comparable practical guidance documents for their professions on how to support people with ME and Long Covid as well as other illnesses that are often psychologised.
The work was led by Professor Gillian Janes of Anglia Ruskin University and was part funded by NHS England.
Knowledge of long Covid has developed at pace. While evidence continues to provide better understanding of acute symptoms, the medium- and long-term effects of Covid-19 on physical and psychological health are poorly understood; nurses need practical tools and guidance to support effective practice.
from the Nursing Times: Codesign of a shared consultation guide for managing long Covid in adults
Key points from the research are:
- Long Covid can be associated with serious long-term health consequences
- Complex symptomatology and post-acute infection onset can make diagnosis difficult
- Nurses are well placed to support timely identification and treatment of long Covid, and help patients to self-manage symptoms
- A new consultation guide could help mitigate potential patient safety and professional accountability issues associated with identifying and managing long Covid
It’s heartening to see that Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome is mentioned, and a link to the NICE Guidelines on Long Covid (188) is shared, which contains some basic information about testing for POTS.
Despite the collaborative approach and involvement of some patient organisations there are some concerning omissions, particularly regarding MECFS (which has been shown to be more prevalent after a covid infection).
Some Concerns
Given that ME/CFS can follow a covid infection (amongst other infections and potential triggers) it is surprising that there is:
- no mention of ME/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in the article or the guide as a whole
- no link or reading suggestion to the NICE guideline for ME/CFS
- no warnings, prominent or otherwise, of Post Exertional Malaise – correct management of which, soon after diagnosis, may have the potential to protect patients from deterioration. This is a particularly worrying gap, seeing as the guide itself aims to help patients ‘self manage’ their conditions (pacing should be a key component of management strategies).
Chronic Living Therapy will be raising this with relevant charities and specialist professionals in order to ensure this input is included, and this omission brought to the attention of the authors.
Nurses in primary or community care, who are interested in participating in evaluating the guide, are invited to contact gillian.janes@aru.ac.uk for further information.
Thanks for the photo at the top of this page, Silvan Arnet on Unsplash
