Exploring How Nurses Count in general practice

Listening to nurses speak proudly about their roles in general practice since Nursing in Practice launched the How Nurses Count campaign has been heartwarming.

The purpose of How Nurses Count is to help to raise the profile of nursing in general practice, and to capture accounts of the positive impact of nurses on patients.

We know it can be the case that nurses are so busy, that these accounts don’t always get written down or shared.

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The passion that nurses have when talking about their careers and the care they deliver to patients has been compelling.

So far in the series, we’ve heard from nurses in general practice about the variety and breadth of the role of the general practice nurse and of advanced nurse practitioners, and the complexity of the healthcare needs of the patients being treated.

Nurses have shared details of the significant responsibilities that nursing teams have, for example, in leading practices’ chronic disease management programmes. In this important area of general practice, patients receive much of the ongoing care they need around their long term condition without seeing a doctor.

One nurse shared her story of intensive training to quality first as a nurse and then as a general practice nurse, after years of working in general practice as a healthcare support worker. Her message was to encourage others to take this path as well, as there is so much demand in general practice.

In Staffordshire, a leading nurse has been recognised for their achievements in setting up an innovative training programme for general practice nurses. Much more support for the role is needed, she told us, to further equip future nurses for the important part they will play in delivering care in the future.

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In the How Nurses Count series too, we’ve learned about the benefits of the ongoing relationship that nurses working in general practice have with patients, often through generations in families. This is a strength that general practice currently needs, with patients valuing this continuity of care.

Yet we’ve also heard how nurses can feel they are an invisible part of the nursing workforce at times.

And despite the intensity of the work involved in general practice, we have also learned that a significant number of nurses take a pay cut to move into the role, as they look for career progression and variety in their work.

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Nursing in Practice will continue to publish more articles exploring How Nurses Count through September and October. Please do get in touch if you have a suggestion for work to be featured in the series or a story to tell about the impact you have made as a nurse in general practice.

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