The International Year of the Nurse and Midwife provides a fabulous opportunity to showcase and celebrate the work of nurses who make a difference to peoples' lives every day. The work of general practice nurses is central to the health and wellbeing of all communities in every village, town and city; general practice nurses are the only nurses who see residents at all stages of their lives—from birth to death, cradle to grave—or, using the term of a GP colleague—sperm to worm. However, it is rare to see practice nurses being promoted in the media as highly skilled, autonomous practitioners and key professionals in the general practice team.
Primary care networks and the role of practice nurses
The recent publication of the Primary Care Network (PCN) service specifications make no reference to general practice nursing (NHS, 2019), but it is likely that much of the work of the new services, such as ‘weekly home rounds’ in care homes, will be done by practice nurses. In many areas this service is already being led and managed by the nurse practitioner of the GP surgery.
The Queen's Nursing Institute (QNI) has responded to the consultation on the service specifications and offered NHS England the opportunity for discussions with our networks of practice nurses, district nurses and care home nurses, to explore the reality of the proposed services from a nursing perspective. We are always willing to facilitate such discussions and firmly believe that it is the voice of the nurse delivering the services who can most clearly articulate the work they do—and the value they bring to their communities.
Raising the voice of nurses
The QNI aims to raise the voice of the nurse in general practice in 2020 and enable all nurses working in general practice to articulate their value. Over the last 2 years we have been working with Suzanne Gordon, international journalist and author of ‘From Silence to Voice: What Nurses Know and Must Communicate to the Public (The Culture and Politics of Health Care Work)’.
The QNI gift to the nursing profession in the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife is the creation of a resource created in partnership with Suzanne to help all nurses learn how to speak about their work, and the impact they make. Suzanne's work in the US has made a difference to the way in which the nursing profession is viewed by the general public, with a greater understanding of the knowledge, skills and the critical nature of their work—which has ultimately impacted on the resources directed to nursing services.
Encouraging people to become nurses
This resource will be launched later this month alongside a book of stories written by Queen's Nurses and curated by Suzanne, in which they describe their work and the impact it has made, using real examples from their practice. The stories are written for the general public and include general practice nurses. We want to encourage all nurses to speak about their work, from the student nurse to to those at every stage of their career. This will also encourage more people to think about nursing as a career, and specifically general practice nursing and community nursing.
It will add to resources like that of Johns Hopkins University in the US, which has produced a very engaging video to encourage more people to apply to become nurses (see Resources below).
Please keep in touch with the QNI in 2020 by signing up to receive regular updates of our work and ways to become involved on our website (www.qni.org.uk).
Box 1.Resources
- Suzanne Gordon's biography. https://www.qni.org.uk/voice-and-value/suzanne-gordon/
- Johns Hopkins Univeristy. Nursing's next big idea. https://tinyurl.com/tltg2xd