Recognising the important role of nurses in general practice

Almost a year on from the start of the pandemic, we know that staff across general practice have faced difficult challenges that have meant they have had to change and adapt their ways of working in order to continue to provide quality care for patients.

The general practice workforce is made up of multidisciplinary teams working together across primary care networks (PCNs) in order to deliver care for their local populations. It is clear that general practice nurses (GPNs) are a vital part of both their own practice and their wider PCN, and their crucial role has been made even more apparent through the pandemic response and the rapid delivery of the vaccination programme in primary care.

Throughout the pandemic, GPNs have been at the forefront of managing work in their practices, keeping up with and implementing Infection, Prevention and Control policies to keep practice teams and patients safe, keeping services running through managing patients with long-term conditions, and adapting to new styles of consultation, be that via telephone, online or video.