17 May
Practice Nurses: An essential part of primary care
How Practice Nursing supports the primary Care team
Practice Nurses are still an essential part of primary care within the NHS and private sectors. They are considered a ‘traditional role’ within GP surgeries alongside GPs themselves and often serve generations of patients from babies through to adulthood.
Within primary care at the moment, a lot of practices require staff to deal with acute, urgent, on-the-day appointments. This is often the remit of a duty GP, Advanced Nurse Practitioners or Paramedic Practitioners. However, Practice Nurses are able to see a wide variety of clinical areas that differ to this, such as wound care, immunisations, smears and long-term condition clinics that include respiratory and diabetic reviews, to name a couple.
Supporting the Primary Care team
The advantage of having a Practice Nurse as part of the team at a GP surgery is that they can see these different areas of healthcare and help to alleviate pressure on the GPs who might have to look into these areas if there were no Practice Nurses in the team. GPs have a tremendous amount of clinics to see with various ailments and illnesses, so having such skilled colleagues on hand is a great help to them and also allows for the patients to be seen by a clinician sooner than it can often take see a GP!
Practice Nurses as individuals can also differ depending on their speciality, if they can prescribe independently, or even if they want to be a lead or managerial figure. This can come down to the practice’s needs but also the nurses’ aspirations. For instance, an independently prescribing Practice Nurse can run clinics single-handedly and offer superb care to any patient that they see, without having to speak with a GP about their prescription requirements.
Practice Nurses are a tremendous asset to any GP surgery
Therefore, even now, Practice Nurses are a tremendous asset to any GP surgery. They can see ailments that other staff members may not have the time or knowledge to, they can alleviate vast amounts of pressure from GPs, they can work very independently and they can offer a great deal to patients whom they see. Practice Nurses can often go underappreciated at their surgeries though, so it’s about time that changed!
Read our reviews!
“I am extremely satisfied with the service and support I received from Ciaran and the team at Menlo Park; to both our GP Practices and our wider PCN.
Ciaran understands our culture and way of working and has been a great asset in finding great new staff additions to our clinical team.”
Michelle Pratley, Practice Manager
Are you looking for a Practice Nurse?
Are you ready to recruit a practice nurse? If you’re thinking of starting the recruitment process; feel free to reach out to us to see how we can help. We can work with you to understand the needs of your practice. We will help you to source the best practice nurse for your team.
