In each issue of the Journal of General Practice Nursing we investigate a topic currently affecting our readers. Here, Binkie Mais asks...

Is it time to accept that there is a crisis in the GPN workforce?

Over the past 12 months, this journal has repeatedly raised the topic of the general practice nurse (GPN) workforce crisis 
(Lane, 2015; Moger, 2015; Storey, 2015). Now, with the publication of the findings from the Queen’s Nursing Institute’s GPN survey (QNI, 2016), concerns around dwindling numbers, lack of capacity to meet increasing demand, poor uptake of newly qualified nurses into primary care, etc have been reinforced by a barrage of evidence from those of you working on the ground (over 3,400 GPNs participated in the survey, i.e. 15% of the entire workforce).