The General Practice Bank

General Practice Nurse

 

Role Summary:

  • To be responsible for the delivery of practice nursing services, working as part of the practice multidisciplinary team, delivering care within their scope of practice to the entitled patient population.
  • The practice nurse will be responsible for a number of clinical areas such as health promotion, chronic disease management, health prevention, well women and well man clinics, as well as supporting the management team in the reviewing of clinical policy and procedure.

 

Primary Responsibilities:

  • Identify, manage, and support patients at risk of developing long-term conditions, preventing adverse effects on the patient’s health
  • Provide routine nursing care to patients as required in accordance with clinical based evidence, NICE and the NSF
  • Provide vaccination and travel medicine services
  • Provide wound care (ulcer /Doppler etc.) to patients
  • Request pathology services as necessary
  • Process pathology results as required
  • Provide chronic disease clinics, delivering patient care as necessary, referring patients to secondary / specialist care as required
  • Maintain accurate clinical records in conjunction with extant legislation
  • Ensure read codes are used effectively
  • Maintain chronic disease registers
  • Develop, implement, and embed well woman clinics
  • Develop, implement, and embed well man clinics
  • Implement vaccination programmes for adults and children
  • Prioritise health issues and intervene appropriately
  • Recognise, assess, and refer patients presenting with mental health needs
  • Support patients in the use of their prescribed medicines or over the counter medicines (within own scope of practice)
  • Support the clinical team with all safeguarding matters, in accordance with local and national policies
  • Deliver opportunistic health promotion where appropriate
  • Maintain baby immunisation results logs
  • Maintain smears results logs
  • Manage emergency drug kit

 

Secondary Responsibilities:

  • Develop, implement, and embed health promotion and well-being programmes
  • Implement and evaluate individual treatment plans for chronic disease patients
  • Assist GPs with minor surgery when required
  • Chaperone patients where necessary
  • Support the team in dealing with clinical emergencies
  • Liaise with external services / agencies to ensure the patient is supported appropriately (vulnerable patients etc.)
  • Delegate clinical responsibilities appropriately (ensuring safe practice and the task is within the scope of practice of the individual)
  • Understand practice and local policies for substance abuse and addictive behaviour, referring patients appropriately
  • Act as the audit lead, effectively utilising the audit cycle
  • Monitor and ensure the safe storage, rotation, and disposal of medicines
  • Support junior members of the nursing team, providing guidance when necessary
  • Participate in local initiatives to enhance service delivery and patient care
  • Support and participate in shared learning within the practice
  • Continually review clinical practices, responding to national policies and initiatives where appropriate
  • Participate in the review of significant and near-miss events applying a structured approach i.e. root cause analysis (RCA)

 

Role Specification:

Qualifications

Essential

Desirable

Nursing degree or equivalent experience

✅

 

Registered Nurse (NMC)

✅

 

Evidence of immunisation training and assessment of competence in last 2 years

✅

 

Post graduate diploma or degree (Primary Care)

 

✅

NMC’s 'Academic Assessors', 'Practice Supervisors', and 'Practice Assessors accreditations

 

✅

Experience

Essential

Desirable

6 months’ relevant experience working in a primary care environment in the last 2 years

✅

 

Experience of chronic disease management

 

✅

Clinical Knowledge & Skills

Essential

Desirable

Immunisations (flu, routine, childhood, B12, travel)

✅

 

Wound Care / Treatment of small injuries / Removal of sutures & staples

✅

 

Women’s health (Cervical cytology, contraception, etc.)

✅

 

Dressings

✅

 

Diabetes review

✅

 

Hypertension

✅

 

Cardiovascular disease – primary prevention

✅

 

Coronary Heart Disease

✅

 

Ability to record accurate clinical notes

✅

 

Ability to work within own scope of practice and understanding when to refer to GPs

✅

 

Understanding of Extended brief interventions (NICE guidelines)

✅

 

Cytology certificates

✅

 

Travel medicine

 

✅

Mental Health

 

✅

ECGs

 

✅

Venepuncture

 

✅

New patient medicals

 

✅

Chaperone procedure

 

✅

Requesting pathology tests and processing the results, advising patients accordingly

 

✅

Asthma

 

✅

Spirometry

 

✅

Understands the importance of evidence-based practice

 

✅

Broad knowledge of clinical governance

 

✅

Knowledge of public health issues in the local area

 

✅

Awareness of issues within the wider health arena

 

✅

Knowledge of health promotion strategies

 

✅

Understands the requirement for PGDs and associated policy

 

✅

General Skills

Essential

Desirable

Excellent communication skills (written and oral)

✅

 

Strong IT skills

✅

 

Clear, polite telephone manner

✅

 

Competent in the use of Office and Outlook

✅

 

Competent in the use of patient record management systems: EMIS / SystmOne

✅

 

Competent in Document Management systems: Docman

✅

 

Competent in other portals: Open Exeter, Coordinate my Care

 

✅

Effective time management (Planning & Organising)

✅

 

Ability to work as a team member and autonomously

✅

 

Good interpersonal skills

✅

 

Ability to follow clinical policy and procedure

✅

 

Experience with audit and able to lead audit programmes

 

✅

Experience with clinical risk management

 

✅

Leadership and management skills, as part of a general practice nursing team with delegated accountability and responsibility for patient care

 

✅

Evidence, research and development - has an enquiring approach to practice to ensure best quality care is offered within any constraints of the service

 

✅

Personal Qualities

Essential

Desirable

Polite and confident

✅

 

Flexible and cooperative

✅

 

Motivated, forward thinker

✅

 

High levels of integrity and loyalty

✅

 

Sensitive and empathetic in distressing situations

✅

 

Ability to work under pressure / in stressful situations

✅

 

Able to communicate and understand the needs of the patient

✅

 

Commitment to ongoing professional development

✅

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Effectively utilises resources

✅

 

Punctual and committed to supporting the team effort

✅

 

 

This job description outlines the roles, duties, and responsibilities of the post. It is not intended to detail all specific tasks.