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Practice nurse
Hello, I’m Marie Therese and I’m a practice nurse. Practice nursing is a fairly new
speciality to the nursing profession coming to the fore about twenty to twenty five years
ago. This was as a direct result of the management of patients moving from the more
acute settings in hospital with long hospital stays following operations and
exacerbations of conditions, to patients being discharged early into the community. This
is known as primary care. You don’t need specific qualification to be a practice nurse
many practice nurses just start with a registered general nursing qualification. However,
many of the practice nurses that you meet when you do your community placement will
have specialist community nursing degrees, or perhaps have masters in advanced
nursing practice. And if they do, these are called nurse practitioners. Other practice
nurses chose to do continuing professional development in the specialities that they are
interested in, such as asthma diplomas, or family planning certificates or qualifications
in minor illness and assessment. Practice nurses differ from other community nurses in
that they are employed directly by general practitioners. Some practice nurses work on
their own. But you will probably find that most practice nurses work as part of a team.
There will be a lead nurse who might possibly be the nursing practitioner. Practice
nurses are involved with all aspects of patient care and look after patients from the
cradle to the grave. The major role for practice nurses is health promotion and
addressing the public health issues within the community. Their role includes the
management of long term conditions such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary
disease, and diabetes and hypertension. They get involved in other specialities, such as
family planning services, diagnosing and management of sexually transmitted
infections, and running a cervical screening service, baby immunisations, travel health,
smoking cessation, and weight loss clinics all form part of their role. Practice nurses
work closely with other members of the community nursing team such as district nurses,
and health visitors, and you may find when you go on your community placement that
they are based within the general practice as well. When you are out on the community
placement you might find that you are not placed specifically with the practice nurse as
a mentor. However, do take the opportunity to ask at the general practice to see if you
can have the opportunity to spend some time with the practice nurse. Usually this is
welcomed, and you get an insight into the varied role that practice nurses do. If you are
a student going on placement, these are some of the opportunities you might be able to
take advantage of. Smoking cessation clinics, baby immunisation clinics, breast feeding
advice, dietary advice, weight loss, screening such as clamidia screening, mental health
screening, and cervical cytology screening. You might also see demonstrated
spyrometry, inhaler techniques and also get to observe consultation and assessment
skills, while you are there. The general practice where I work we have a team of five
nurses. We have a lead nurse practitioner, and then the other nurses all take the lead in
a speciality that they are interested in. The practice is very ethnically diverse, and many
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Practice nurse –August 2010
of the women do not feel comfortable attending the local leisure centre. And for this
reason we have a gym on site where they can come and exercise without the fear of
being observed. The practice also has a counselling service, a podiatry service, and we
also have a team who can come into offer advice to the patients on claiming benefits.
We work closely with our team of doctors, who are fully supportive of us, and we have
excellent reception staff who also manage our appointments, and help us
administratively, and we form a good team. And we have regular social nights out.
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Practice nurse –August 2010