Children's Community Nursing Team
Children’s Services Colchester Hospital Turner Road Colchester CO4 5JL
Tel: 01206 746284
A home nursing service for children in North East Essex
What is the Children's Community Nursing Team?
The Children’s Community Nursing Team consists of children’s nurses who work closely with medical and nursing staff at Colchester Hospital and specialist centres to provide skilled, high-quality nursing care in the community setting. The team provides advice and support for families with children aged 0-16 years who have an acute or chronic illness and require nursing intervention.
More Information
- work in partnership with parents and carers to support and empower them to care for their child at home, wherever possible
- work with medical/nursing staff and families to support early discharge from hospital and to reduce the disruption caused by hospital admissions and attendances
- provide a link with multidisciplinary team members, including medical/ nursing colleagues and staff in social care and education. This helps coordinate agencies, ensuring continuity of care for the child and the family
- work closely with the family, supporting palliative/end of life care for a child in the home setting and respecting parents’ wishes.
- home intravenous treatment
- home chemotherapy
- care of central venous access devices (Hickman lines/portacaths/PICC lines)
- monitoring children requiring oxygen at home
- support of the neonate at home
- gastrostomy care
- tracheostomy care
- subcutaneous and intramuscular injections
- parenteral/enteral feeding support
- wound care/suture removal
- obtaining blood samples
- end of life care
- support of children at home who are dependent on medical technology.
On receiving a referral a member of the team will discuss your child’s needs with you and, following assessment, agree a plan of care. Appointments will be given but are subject to change due to emergencies, the weather or traffic conditions.
If you need to cancel or change your child’s appointment, please give us as much notice as possible.
We respectfully request that during home visits pets are excluded from the area that your child is treated in and smokers refrain from smoking. We require clean running water and an area to wash our hands with soap and a clean towel.
To support the care of your child at home, information may need to be shared with other agencies. If required, this will be discussed with you.
Colchester Hospital is a teaching hospital.
Student doctors or nurses may accompany the nurse on visits to your child to support their learning/training. If you are not comfortable with this, please discuss it with your child’s nurse.
The Children’s Community Nursing Team can be contacted on 01206 746284.
If a member of the team is not available to speak to you immediately a message can be left on the answerphone. A staff member will phone you back as soon as possible, but messages left after 2 pm may not be returned until the next working day.
To find out how to give us feedback on your visit or healthcare experience, please visit www.esneft.nhs.uk and search for ‘PALS’, or speak to a member of staff on the ward or department you are in.