One in three practice nurses considering quitting in the next year

Almost a third (32%) of nurses working in general practice are considering leaving their role in the next year, an exclusive Nursing in Practice survey has revealed.

Dissatisfaction with pay and feeling undervalued were cited among the top reasons for nurses wanting to quit, as well as issues around employment benefits.

The findings come within a new Nursing in Practice report – General practice nurse pay: A salary survey of the profession 2026 – unveiled at our Nursing in Practice London event last month.

Based on a survey of almost 900 general practice nursing staff and informed by expert opinion, including from the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), the report focuses on general practice nurse (GPN) basic pay and salaries, annual pay uplifts, pensions, employment benefits, the additional roles reimbursement scheme and more. It follows on from our 2025 version of the salary survey and report.

‘I can’t afford to stay in this role’

Our latest survey, carried out in February, suggested 32% of nurses in general practice are thinking about leaving their role in the next 12 months – up from 28% in our 2025 survey.

Of those wanting to leave, the top five reasons cited were:

• General practice nurse (GPN) pay in general is not keeping in line with cost of living/inflation (60%)
• Pay at my practice doesn’t reflect my responsibilities and workload (57%)
• Feeling undervalued in my job (43%)
• Workload is too high (34%)
• Uncompetitive benefits package (for example, maternity pay, sick pay, annual leave etc) (30%)

Several nurses said they wanted to leave to find NHS Agenda for Change (AfC) roles, in favour of better terms and conditions.

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One practice nurse said they are ‘actively trying to go back to a trust for AfC and better training opportunities but there are no vacancies’.

Another said: ‘I can’t afford to stay in this role, I have a young family to feed. I’m constantly mentally and physically exhausted. Flight or fight mode trying to give patients what they need with less and less time. I wish practice nurse time was better managed with longer appointments and nurses could just afford the basics.’

According to our survey, only 11% of nurses working in general practice are on AfC contracts.

A nurse team lead responding to the survey described feeling ‘stuck’ because their work pattern fits with their children. ‘But the pay side of things is really getting me down as we are left behind compared to AfC and are always told there’s no budget for rises,’ the nurse added.

Almost a third of respondents also said they are considering quitting because their job is too stressful (29%), while concerns around a lack of career progression (22%) and feeling isolated in their role (17%) were also cited.

Around a quarter (24.5%) of those thinking about leaving in the next year were considering retirement.

Job satisfaction

While many GPNs are looking to leave their role, survey results suggested many are satisfied in their jobs.

Almost two-thirds (65%) of respondents described feeling ‘very’ or ‘fairly satisfied’ – up slightly from 62% in 2025.

Nurses were asked to rank the elements of the job they enjoy the most – which again reflects how much the profession values their patients and the care they provide.

Patient interaction/relationships came out as the top part of the job nurses enjoy, followed by their ability to work as part of a team and offer continuity of care to patients. The results also show that work-life balance – such as not having to do shift work and having core hours – is also important to this group of nurses.

Related Article: More than half of GPNs report working while feeling mentally unwell, finds survey

‘Without nurses, primary care services simply would not function’

Nurses were also asked whether they feel valued in their role by practice colleagues and their employer.

The data showed three-quarters (76%) do feel valued – either ‘always’ or ‘sometimes’. But almost a quarter disagreed (24%).

Comments left by nurses in the survey suggested they do often feel valued by their teams and by patients, but questions were raised around how valued they feel by employers.

One advanced nurse practitioner (ANP) said: ‘I feel valued by my patients, and I enjoy being with my team, but feel we are all very stressed. The feeling in the practice in general is poor. We offer a great service and get great feedback from patients but lately feel undervalued by our employer. The goals are always moving.’

Meanwhile a GPN said nurses, alongside healthcare assistants and pharmacists, ‘make up the bulk of QOF work and illness prevention’, including through asthma reviews and vaccinations. However, they added: ‘I don’t feel valued enough for the contribution we make to the workforce, but it would certainly be noticed if practice nurses weren’t providing this care.’

In a foreword for our report, executive director of RCN England, Patricia Marquis, said: ‘The fact is that without nursing staff, primary care services simply would not function.

‘Nursing staff are a constant presence in every general practice operation, but they continue to be left behind when it comes to pay.’

She urged the government and employers in general practice to ‘show they value their staff’, adding that ‘this starts with paying them fairly’.

Related Article: Practice nurses call for Agenda for Change terms and conditions to ‘feel safer’

Key findings from our report – including that nurses working in general practice are earning thousands of pounds less than those in secondary care on AfC terms and that a third of GPNs went without a pay rise for 2025/26 – were unveiled at our Nursing in Practice London event last month.

This was followed by a keynote address from RCN chief executive and general secretary Professor Nicola Ranger who welcomed the report as an important publication and also cited concerns around GPN pay.

This survey was open from 9 February until 2 March 2026, collating responses using the SurveyMonkey tool. A total of 881 general practice nursing staff responded to these questions from across the UK, with the majority within England. The survey was advertised to our readers via our website and email newsletter, with a prize draw for £200 vouchers as an incentive to complete the survey. The survey was unweighted, and we do not claim this to be scientific – only a snapshot.