Primary care Resources

The transition from secondary to primary care can be daunting for any healthcare professional due to the extreme changes in the working environment and clinical responsibilities/duties undertaken. Healthcare professionals may fear that their knowledge base is not up-to-date and that they will become ‘deskilled’ within the general practice setting. However, with the correct attitude and determination, a successful and varied career can be forged incorporating advanced skills and enhanced practice within the day-to-day work of a general practice nurse (GPN).

There is widespread recognition that respiratory disease has been under prioritised and neglected for many years (All-Party Parliamentary Group [APPG], 2014). Those of us who work in primary care feel this is improving, although we recognise we still have a long way to go. We have welcomed guidance and guidelines that promote good respiratory care, as the patient, not the diagnosis, is key to what we do. 

In each issue of the Journal of General Practice Nursing we investigate a topic currently affecting our readers.

Here, Amanda Andrews, programme lead in undergraduate nurse education, Education for Health, looks at how GPNs can support people with multiple sclerosis

Frailty is a clinical syndrome which focuses on loss of reserve, energy and wellbeing. Currently, older people with frailty tend to present late and often in crisis to health and care services so their care may be hospital-based, episodic, and unplanned. There is a need to reframe frailty as a long-term condition that can be mainly managed within a primary and community care setting, with timely identification for preventative, proactive care underpinned by supported self-management and person-centred care. General practice nurses (GPNs) will play a vital role in this new paradigm for frailty as key workers, coordinators of care, and supporters to patients and their carers at all stages of the frailty trajectory.

In each issue of the journal we speak to general practice nurses and hear what they have to say about their role in primary care.

Beverley Bostock-Cox, nurse practitioner, Mann Cottage Surgery, Moreton-in-Marsh; education lead, Education for Health

This article focuses on prevention in the Five Year Forward View (NHS England, 2014a) and the role of primary care, particularly the role of the general practice nurse (GPN). It will:

• Describe the policy context for behaviour change interventions and how this will affect the expectations of clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) and NHS England as commissioners of general practice
• Define behaviour change interventions and the role of the GPN in delivering these
• Link behaviour change to longterm conditions management and support for self-care
• Recognise some of the practical issues which work against delivery of behaviour change in general practice
• Set out the opportunities for GPNs as leaders in improving their patients’ health.

By reading the article in each issue, you can learn all about the key principles of subjects that are vital to your role as a general practice nurse.

The use of compression hosiery is commonplace in primary care. Traditionally, compression hosiery has been used to prevent leg ulceration, including prevention of the recurrence of leg ulcers and skin breakdown after ulcers have healed (Nelson and Bell-Syer, 2012).

By reading the article in each issue you can learn all about key principles of subjects that are vital to your role as a general practice nurse.

Pilonidal is an abscess, usually found in the natal cleft, most frequently caused when a ruptured hair follicle beneath the skin becomes infected forming an abscess (pilonidal cyst) filled with hair, keratin and debris which can develop into a sinus tract (sacrococcygeal fistula) (Pilonidal Support Alliance [PSA], 2011; Harris et al, 2012) (Figure 1).