I've been threatened by patients before - you are quite vulnerable if you are going into people's homes on your own - but the nurses on the evening service don't go out alone anymore. We used to and you would get called to all sorts of strange places at night.
Q: from Sarah, LondonDo you ever feel in danger going out on your own? 1715 GMT We've been ear syringing this afternoon. It's fairly routine and shouldn't be painful. But you can stimulate cardiac arrest if the water temperature isn't right so I have to be careful.
Next up is an insulin injection for Mary Robinson who'll be celebrating her 76th birthday tomorrow. She's had her hair done for the occasion - the birthday, not the injection - and she's in high spirits. Mrs Robinson is reliant on these injections twice a day. In order for these to be effective, she has to be careful of her diet but she's got a real sweet tooth and loves her chocolate.
1413 GMT Lunch is on the run at a nurses' forum - a meeting of grassroots workers, from community psychiatric nurses to school health visitors to discuss ways of working etc. Sometimes debate gets quite heated but today it's mainly computers for clinics and patients forums on the agenda. A good chance to catch up with people anyway, and the sandwich buffet is very welcome.
Back to meet with the team over a quick cuppa. There's some training opportunities coming up, in the new healthy hearts initiative, dealing with high blood pressure and hypertension etc which is very exciting. We have to be up to date with all the new treatments - us district nurses aren't like Nerys Hughes on the bike any more, we don't just ride and give bed baths to people.
A: from Teresa DavisYes. You see people over a longer period of time, and you see them getting well in their home environment. You see them just as they are in their own homes, and you get to know them better. Q: from Wendy Johnson, ScotlandDo you find that working in the community is more satisfying than working on a ward? 1150 GMT Treatment rooms at the clinic next and first up is Pat Hall, who fell down the stairs and broke her leg last year. She's had the pins out of her leg now but the wound hasn't healed. It's very sore and there's a lot of pressure on it which is making things worse.
Thomas Gibson, another accident case, is up next - he fell asleep in bed next to a very hot radiator and woke up in the morning with a nasty sore. It's turned into a big scab which needs to be removed. Scabs are there for a reason but sometimes they have to come off. There's still a lot of gungy stuff in the wound so we'll clean it up. He's in reasonably high spirits but points out that you don't realise how many times you use your elbow until you have a great big sore on it.
1046 GMT First visit is to Christine Carr, 48, who has suffered from Parkinson's disease since she was 14. She collapsed in her home yesterday and we were very worried about her. She has had a better night though and as she greets me at the door and looks a million times better.
She tells me: "One day I can feel smashing and the next I'm terrible. I had a rough day yesterday but I feel much better now. I'm struggling living back at home by myself but I get good support from the nurses. If you know they are there it helps you get through the night."
We go in once a week to take blood samples but it's been much more than that recently. The drugs for Parkinson's have very severe side effects, particularly psychological ones, paranoia, mood swings etc so it's a fine balancing act finding the drugs to suit.
1011 GMT It's an early start at the Shiremoor health centre - the 1960s bungalow we district nurses share with the local GP. This is a former mining town with plenty of social problems - that's clear from the centre's vandalised door which greets us each day.
My first task is to find out what's been going on overnight. It seems the night nurses have had to deal with a man who hurt himself falling out of bed. There are four of us on today, so we have to agree how to divide up administering the insulin injections and the other routine visits we have to make. Already the phone's begun to ring.
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