Community nursing is an essential part of the Australian healthcare system. From treating the vulnerable, to providing routine care and comfort for long-suffering patients, community nursing is one of the most rewarding career paths. 

Read our ultimate guide to community nursing to learn what community nurses do.

What does a Community Nurse Do?

There are different kinds of community nurses which all have different responsibilities. With that said, they do share some broad characteristics.

Community nurses provide care outside of a hospital setting. While hospital care treats emergencies or serious injuries that can’t be managed at home, community care is about preventing hospitalisation, or ongoing care that doesn’t require hospitalisation. 

Both of these roles are essential. A good end-to-end healthcare system needs care providers at every stage of an illness or injury. 

The main difference between community and hospital nursing is the end goal. Where hospitals mostly aim to make patients better and get them back home, community care is often ongoing, and aims to prevent hospitalisation in the first place. Its main priority is often to make people comfortable. 

The 5 Main Kinds of Community Nursing 

There are five main kinds of community nursing, and they all offer very different roles and experiences.

1. Public Health

Public health nurses work in the community to educate and provide screening and preventative care. These are nurses who you might see vaccinating children at schools, assisting mobile breast cancer screening centres, or running blood donation drives. 

2. General Practice

A General Practice, or GP, is where most people go to see their doctor and get checkups or referrals. The purpose of GP is to act as an intermediate step between self treatment and hospital. Patients who go to the GP are often suffering from minor issues that don’t require hospitalisation, but are too serious to treat at home. 

3. Hospital in the Home Care

Hospital in the Home (HITH) care is a unique form of community nursing. For some conditions, hospital-level care is necessary. However, if there is an acceptably low risk to life many many patients would prefer to be at home. Health issues such as cellulitis, infections and pneumonia can all fall under this category.

4. Post-Hospital Care

Similar to HITH care, post-hospital care is about transitioning a person back into their home after a hospital stay. The main difference is that HITH focuses on treating the condition that caused hospitalisation, while post-hospital care treats any associated issues after the initial condition is treated.

5. Palliative Care

Palliative care is one of the most vital community nursing services. Patients who are terminally or chronically ill require constant care to make sure that they have the best quality of life possible in their condition. 

At Pinnacle Training Hub we offer community nursing for all patient needs at the highest level of care.  We are here to help.