Resources

Here, Kirsty Armstrong, ANP in OOH, Urgent Care and GPEA looks at why telephone triage is an art, and how its importance and skill is underestimated. Alongside this word search, which contains some red flags that triagers need to consider, there are some reasons listed as to why these are red flags and the speed with which patients need to be referred, or seen face to face, when presenting with these symptoms. Additionally, there is guidance on those symptoms and conditions that have the option of watch/wait or monitor.

The recent Covid-19 pandemic has reinforced the need for health care to be delivered in a different way to enable the NHS to be fit for purpose and continue to provide high levels of health care at an affordable cost. One way of doing this is to utilise the benefits of shared care, a concept that is not new, but has not yet been fully embraced. This encourages sharing the responsibility of delivering care in a variety of ways. Wound care is one area that provides general practice nurses (GPNs) with a significant opportunity for patients to be involved in their own care. This can even include wounds producing a high volume of wound exudate, if an appropriate dressing is selected which gives the patient confidence that it will work, despite the unpredictable nature of chronic wounds. Patients need a package of information to reinforce the verbal education given to ensure that they know how to carry out their care, and what to do in the event of a problem or change in wound status. Virtual clinics, which have been especially useful during the recent pandemic, are also an option to replace some face-to-face contact.

General practice nurses (GPNs) across the country are set to benefit from CARE (connected, authentic, resilient, and empowered) — a practical development programme that empowers participants to drive innovation, strengthen relationships and develop a bottom-up, population healthfocused approach to care.

The programme supports GPNs to build self-awareness and resilience, which in turn is helping to unlock exciting innovation and improved system leadership, in spite of this time of heightened pressure.