The Queen's Nursing Institute Scotland

Promoting excellence in community nursing across Scotland

Climate Change and Infant Feeding

Dr Elizabeth Smith is the Breastfeeding Advocacy Lead for Scotland and Queen’s Nurse from the 2018 cohort. In her latest blog, she talks us through her reasons for getting involved in the creation of Health Care Without Harm’s climate-smart infant feeding resources. I sit and write this a day after the hottest day ever experienced…

Voices from the Margin: Part 2

HPBL Consultant, Michele Stranger Hunter explores the views of the women participating in these one-to-one Listening Sessions and her own reflections upon their meaning. The Listening Sessions were conducted as individual interviews with patients registered at Edinburgh’s Access Place.

Women, Alcohol, Pregnancy & FASD

This is the second blog of six where Professor Moira Plant shares highlights from her report to be published this summer.   Who is most likely to drink during pregnancy and what gets in the way of discussions about it? This second blog in the series (see the first blog here) shares highlights from the…

Voices from the Margin: Part 1

Edinburgh Access HPBL Listening Session, Part 1 Inger McGowan QN and Michele Stranger Hunter The views and advice of marginalised, traumatised women about their lived experience of reproductive health and pregnancy are too rarely solicited, heard or heeded. One mission of QNIS’ Healthier Pregnancies, Better Lives programme is to redress that inequity. The overall results…

Women, Alcohol, Pregnancy and FASD

Since training as a nurse in Edinburgh, I have been fascinated by the complex relationships between women and alcohol. This interest led me to become an alcohol specialist nurse here decades ago. In fact, I ended up considering the connections between drinking and healthcare throughout my career. My late husband and I both eventually became Professors of Alcohol Studies.

General Practice and Reproductive Health:

Primary care’s potential for pre-pregnancy counselling, assessments and services is a golden opportunity to prevent harm and promote health.  It arose from their understanding that people of reproductive age are rarely getting the information and assistance they need from other health professionals.  They understand that primary care providers are usually best placed within Scotland’s healthcare system to play this new role.

General Practice and Reproductive Health:

Listening Sessions are a key part of QNIS’ Healthier Pregnancies, Better Lives programme. Lorna Dhami QN and I have been ‘testing the water’ on how prospective parents feel about their reproductive health care, and how General Practice Nurses feel about providing information, services and support in this area. Our focus was specifically on preconception and interconception health care. This included screening to identify risks and either eliminate or mitigate those risks prior to conception.

What Respondents Want to Happen Next

This is the fourth and final blog presenting the results of the spring 2022 QNIS/Healthier Pregnancies, Better Lives survey of an illustrative sample of Scotland’s community nurses and midwives on Preconception Health, Care and Education.

Your Views and Experiences

This is the third blog presenting the results of the spring 2022 QNIS/Healthier Pregnancies, Better Lives survey of an illustrative sample of Scotland’s community nurses and midwives.

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