Nurses say they feel isolated

Nursing homesNurses working in nursing homes feel very isolated from other medical professionals, new research has found.

Some 200 nurses in the Southern Health Board region were interviewed by Ms Norah Naughton, as part of her Masters degree in primary health care with the Royal College of Surgeons. Ms Naughton is also chairwoman of the Irish Nursing Homes Organisation.

Almost half of the nurses she spoke to had no contact with hospital consultants in geriatric medicine while 30 per cent had no contact with the hospital liaison officer - the person who oversees the transfer of a patient from the hospital to a nursing home.

Almost one in five nurses had no contact with the public health nurse while 14 per cent had no contact with the physiotherapist.

"The most surprising thing about the survey was the strong feeling of isolation," Ms Naughton said.

Nurses were also concerned at the lack of services for medical card holders in private nursing homes, who are precluded from chiropody and physiotherapy.

Ms Naughton said this was "a terrible anomaly" in the system.