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.
Working together
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.
In the last year, GPNs also delivered one of the biggest flu vaccination campaigns we have had and have been an integral part of the delivery of the COVID-19 vaccination programme – the biggest in the history of the NHS.
GPNs going above and beyond
I have heard so many stories of GPNs across the country going above and beyond, adapting to new ways of working, delivering care differently, and coming up with new and innovative ideas of how to deliver care. Recognising this, I am encouraged by the work of the collaborative NHS England/NHS Improvement and National Association of Primary Care ‘CARE’ leadership and resilience programme (National Association of Primary Care, 2021), which is successfully enabling the development of GPN leadership at all levels.
However, in this extended Year of The Nurse we continue to recognise the important role GPNs play every day, as the backbone of general practice as everyday leaders across a variety of roles, which includes work around prevention, such as immunisations, cervical smears, early cancer diagnosis or health checks, the management of long-term conditions for patients, such as diabetes, asthma and COPD, and other services such as women's health, travel vaccinations, wound dressing and more.
Many of our GPN colleagues also have advanced nursing specialist skills and prescribing qualifications, which allow them to consult with patients on minor illnesses and prescribe for long-term condition patients amongst other skills, as well as carry out medication reviews. They can also offer specialist support for the local frailty teams in caring for patients in the community.
Leadership
With so much experience to offer, I would urge more colleagues from the nursing profession to come forward to take on a range of leadership roles including PCN clinical directors. There are currently 18 clinical directors from a nursing background and their unique skills and views are an asset to their PCNs. I have met and worked with some fantastic GPNs over the years and we really need to support them to have the confidence to step forward so we can tap into and learn from this amazing talent.