General Practice Nursing

Nurses play an important part in delivering health care when they are part of general practice. Their role is mainly to care for patients with complex or chronic conditions undertaking several general practice processes including patient assessment, follow-up, and review. There is an increasing shift in healthcare from hospitals to general practice providing nurses with a wider career choice. Nurses are an important part of care delivery in general practice. General practice (GP) nurses can identify local allied health services to ensure that referrals go through an appropriate pathway to associated health professionals.

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Working Life for General Practice Nurses

General practice nurses work as part of primary health care that may include doctors, dieticians, and pharmacists during GP surgeries. In larger practices, a GP nurse might be one of the several practice nurses who share responsibilities and duties. For some practices, they work on their own taking many roles. Various aspects of patient care nursing require the input of general practice nurses as they can do all these:

GP nurses may also directly supervise of healthcare assistants.

Entry requirement for GP practice

To work as GP, you must be a trained and registered nurse. You need to undertake further education and training or do it after your appointment. Some employers might ask for knowledge or experience is certain areas like health promotion or working with patients suffering from long-term conditions. It is essential for registered nurses to check with training providers to see what they provide and local employers to see their qualifications they require.

You can take the first step of general practice nursing career even without enrolling in a university straight away. You may start off as an assistant practitioner or healthcare assistant if you have relevant qualifications and experience. It will be necessary to further develop skills through further education and training before you enroll for your degree.

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Career Progression Chances after General Practice Training

With further training an experience, the practice nurses may apply for other senior positions such as senior practice nurse, nurse practitioner or an advanced nurse practitioner. When you join one of the roles above, it is an opportunity to work with more autonomy and manage caseloads alone. You may also move to education, teaching, clinical research or management.

Personal Characteristics and Skills Necessary for GP Nursing

As a general Practice Nurse, you will be responsible for people with varying needs. You must, therefore, be flexible and perfect in an efficient prioritization of their requirements. You also should be highly-organized.

It also requires you to be highly observant so that you can assess your patients in a short moment and take responsibility to determine the best action. Every day at work, you need to utilize an extensive range of skills including:

As you will be a nurse with responsibility for delivering care in practice, it is essential that your patients know you for critical thinking, right decision and ability to manage their needs. The entire scope of your role will mostly depend on the job requirement by your employer. Your education and training are also essential because they must be relevant for the purpose. For instance, an employ may require a senior practice nurse who can independently prescribe rights for supporting areas such as long-term conditions such as diabetes and asthma so you must be knowledgeable about them.