A North-east health professional is celebrating success after completing her postgraduate degree and having her first article published by a professional journal.
A North-east health professional is celebrating success after completing her postgraduate degree and having her first article published by a professional journal.
Lorna Coutts, who works within the Health Visiting team at Aboyne Medical Practice, has recently passed her final assessments for the BSc (Hons) Public Health Nursing at Robert Gordon University (RGU).
Lorna completed the course via distance learning and will graduate from the university at a ceremony at Aberdeen Music Hall on Tuesday, December 8.
She has also had a paper published in November’s issue of the Journal of Health Visiting which focuses on birthmarks and how health visitors can support the families of children with birthmarks.
Lorna said: “I’m delighted to have successfully completed my postgraduate course at RGU. It’s been a lot of work juggling my studies while also working part-time and caring for two young children, but the qualification will help to develop my career whilst also making sure clients receive the best advice and service.
“For the final part of the course I decided to focus on an assignment on birthmarks as it is an area that I have past experience in. When I reviewed existing resources I found very little information relating to birthmarks in both health visiting and nursing literature, highlighting a potential gap in knowledge.
“As birthmarks are very common and can often occur in the weeks following birth, I felt it was important to ensure that health visitors had the relevant knowledge and training to confidently identify and manage birthmarks, whilst being able to provide proactive support to the family.”
The first part of Lorna’s article, entitled: “Identifying Birthmarks - how health visitors can support families Part 1” has now been published and discusses the different types of birthmarks, treatments, causes, diagnosis and possible complications that may occur as a result of a birthmark.
Part 2, explores the psychological effects, social exclusion and implications for the development of attachment and is expected to be published within the next few editions of the journal.
Lorna said: “Since overcoming my initial astonishment that my paper is being published, I feel a great sense of pride that my hard work through the course and the subsequent publication of the article has been recognised.
“Hopefully other health professionals find the information informative and useful to enable them relate to their current practice.”