It is no secret that nurses are in short supply, so as part of its ‘We Are The NHS’ recruitment drive NHS England and NHS Improvement has launched a new website to boost applications for practice nursing vacancies. The new site – gpnursing.jobs.nhs.uk – interlocks with NHS Jobs and collates practice nursing vacancies even if…

Some £15 million is to put towards a programme to improve recruitment of practice nurses, it has been announced. NHS England promised that its programme would also provide support for existing practice nurses. This includes an expansion in leadership and career opportunities, it promised, together with induction programmes, training and mentoring for nurses joining general…

For years, nurses have been an important part of delivering care in general practice. And with current policy increasing the shift of care from hospital to general practice, nursing provision will only become more important. However, at the same time, the skill mix within practices now often includes Health Care Assistants (level 2 – 4),…

Improved training is the key to expanding the number of practice nurses, according to a new report. There should also be efforts to improve the profile of the role, according to Health Education England. The report says that nurses in general practice should have access to accredited training. It calls for practice nurse educators to…

New statistics from Mind highlight how little training GPs and practice nurses are being offered in mental health. Data obtained by the mental health charity shows that in England, on average, less than half (46 per cent)[i] of trainee GPs undertook a training placement in a mental health setting. Furthermore, the only mental health-related option…

Making the headlines recently was the suggestion made by RCGP Wales that the Welsh Government should merge practice nurse and district nurse roles to create generic ‘primary care nurse’ posts closely linked to surgeries. The RCGP Wales outgoing chair Dr Paul Myres argued that patients currently get ‘fragmented’ care, which lacks continuity, because they have…

Last month the Department of Health confirmed the implementation of revalidation for nurses and midwives from April 2016. This confirmation approved the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s new system for all nurses and midwives – including those in GP practices – to ensure that they regularly demonstrate they are able to deliver care in a safe, effective and…