THE number of nursing staff in Meirionnydd has increased over the past year to enable them to provide enhanced care services in the community.

Over the last year two new nurses have been recruited to join the District Nursing Team, which now has 43 nurses along with two members of staff who work in the administration department.

The nurses have a wide variety of skills and knowledge that cover specialities such as medicine, surgical and palliative care. They have been trained to carry out specialist procedures which include IV drug administration, catheterisation, taking blood, wound care and pressure ulcer care.

For patients in the palliative and terminal stages of their life, the team provides a service that allows them to be cared for in their own homes.

Susan Griffith, a community staff nurse primarily based in Tywyn, who recently completed a return to practice course after leaving the profession over 17 years ago, says working in a rural community is extremely “rewarding”.

She said: “I moved to the area three years ago and had previously worked on the neonatal ward in Chester.

“I decided to return to nursing and whilst doing my course I was based in Tywyn Hospital on placement. I could not have asked for better support throughout, Meirionnydd is a great place to undertake your training, the work we do is extremely rewarding and very different to working on a ward at a hospital in a busy city.”

Also currently part of the community nursing team on placements are student nurses Evie Williams, 24, from Dolgellau and Alaw Jones, 19, from Bryncir who are both undertaking nursing courses at Bangor University.

Evie said: “The area of Meirionnydd is a great place to undertake your nursing placement whilst at university, I have learnt a lot from the other nurses in the team.”

Read the full story in tomorrow’s north editions of the Cambrian News