A voice for community nursing

Tucked away in a narrow street in Clerkenwell, London WC1, is the headquarters of the Queen's Nursing Institute (QNI), the small-but-influential charity dedicated to improving the nursing care of people in their own homes.

Its unassuming exterior is a world away from the impressive facades of Royal Colleges such as the RCN in W1, and the Royal College of GPs' Euston base, newly refurbished at a cost of £38 million. But size does not always equate to efficacy.

With government policy focused squarely on reducing pressure on A&E by moving workload out of hospitals and into community settings, the QNI - as the only charity with an exclusive focus on the range of patient care in this sector - is gaining a reputation as an important mouthpiece for community nursing.