It has been a long and winding road over the past 18 months. The focus of the news has been on secondary care, but what has it been like for practice nursing – a generally overlooked and undervalued profession? We did not stop during this time; we rose to the challenge and changed the way we worked to accommodate our new world, but at what cost?
We are now seeing more general practice nurses (GPNs) taking early retirement or simply just leaving, and question on the tip of our tongue is why? One major reason could be burnout. We gave our all, we worked in new and different ways, we stayed late, and kept seeing patients everyday. We stepped up to the challenge of switching to telephone and video consultations. All of this took energy, but at what cost? In a survey of 184 GPNs, 52% said that workloads had greatly increased and 29% said workloads had slightly increased during the pandemic (Launder, 2021).
But we have been on mute and our amazing contribution has gone unnoticed. In the Southeast of England, a GPN said they were ‘staggered’ when a practice partner had not realised ‘the nursing team still had full clinics’. Another wrote: ‘The nursing team have not been supported in reducing face-to-face contact in the same way as GPs.’
All of this has and is taking a toll on our mental and physical health. We need to be mindful of the signs of burnout and stress. Nurses are people who will always put others first and just keep going; we often feel bad for taking time off as we will let our patients and colleagues down; we have the mind-set, ‘I have to keep going as I don't want to make a fuss or let people down’. But we are human too and we need to look after ourselves, as if we don't, who will?
This NHS website shows the signs and differences between burnout and stress – all are important and need action (https://people.nhs.uk/executivesuite/support-in-difficult-times/stress-and-burnout/). If you recognise any of these symptoms please seek help, as you are so important and need and deserve support to help you feel better and back to your lovely self.
If we do not act now and look after ourselves and our colleagues this profession could be in trouble as we are already very short staffed. There needs to be recognition and appreciation from our GPs as they often have absolutely no idea what we do! It doesn't take a great deal to say thank you and to ask how our day is going and acknowledge what a great job we are doing.
Is burnout affecting you? Let us know at pn@markallengroup.com
‘Practice Nursing provides nurses working in general practice with the tools to reach their full potential and deliver the best possible care to their patients. Our monthly journal informs and inspires by providing up-to-date, evidence-based clinical articles, highlighting key professional issues and promoting the latest research in general practice.’