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Unit Seven
Integration of general practice nurses in the community health care workforce

Key Benefits

Once you have read this Unit, you should have an understanding of:

  • how to engage general practice nurses (GPNs) more actively with other health care professionals
  • the critical success factors for integration
  • advantages of nurses working together
  • use of care pathways to facilitate cross-boundary working.

GPNs represent just one component of the community nursing workforce.
GPNs work alongside:

  • district nurses
  • health visitors
  • school nurses
  • community matrons
  • clinical nurse specialists.

The NHS plan1 heralded exciting times for nurses, with the modernisation of services and the shift in emphasis from hospital-based care to primary care. The current climate of practice-base commissioning,2 clinical governance and new opportunities outlined in Liberating the Talents3 brings a unique combination of challenges for nurses. One of these challenges is for nurses to work together, rather than being separated by unnecessary boundaries between general practice and primary care trusts. Our Health, our Care, our Say: a Direction for Community Nurses4 promotes better partnership working with all stakeholders, including local authorities, to deliver more effective services.

The potential of the nursing profession is now being unleashed with the advent of extended nurse prescribing and the Nursing and Midwifery Council's professional recognition of advanced practice. More nurses are now acquiring further skills to manage long-term conditions and taking on activities that have traditionally been undertaken by GPs. This allows GPs to focus on more-complex cases that would formerly have been referred to secondary care specialists.

The work of all nurses is expanding, and unless they work together and make appropriate use of skill-mix, the workload could become unmanageable and patient care may lack continuity. However, working across traditional boundaries extends further than branches of nursing.

This Unit therefore encourages ways in which GPNs can engage more actively with other health care professionals in order to gain benefits for their patients, their practices and themselves.

References

  1. Department of Health. The NHS Plan. London: Department of Health; 2000. Available at: http://www.dh.gov.uk/assetRoot/04/05/57/83/04055783.pdf.
  2. Department of Health. Making Practice-based Commissioning a Reality: Technical Guidance. London: Department of Health; 2005. Available at: http://www.dh.gov.uk/assetRoot/04/10/50/33/04105033.pdf.
  3. Department of Health. Liberating the Talents, Helping Primary Care Trusts and Nurses to Deliver the NHS Plan. London: The Stationary Office; 2002. Available at: http://www.dh.gov.uk/assetRoot/04/07/62/50/04076250.pdf.
  4. Department of Health. Our Health, our Care, our Say; a New Direction for Community Services. London: Department of Health; 2006. Available at: http://www.dh.gov.uk/assetRoot/04/12/74/59/04127459.pdf.
 

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This document is intended as a guide only.
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