INTEGRATING CARE FOR LONG-TERM CONDITIONS IS IMPORTANT
Improving management of people living with long-term conditions (LTCs) has been a key priority for the NHS since the 1990s. At the time, little evidence existed to understand the best practice on managing LTCs and the involvement of primary care. Today, we are in a stronger position where efficacy, safety and other positive outcomes are being demonstrated by implementing a variety of quality improvement approaches and service redesign, all underlined by the rhetoric of integrated care.
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. This time we hear from Paula McLaren, nurse practitioner, Watling Medical Centre; research lead and health and wellbeing lead, Colindale and Burnt Oak Clinical Network.
Welcome to GPN’s learning zone. 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. Once youhave read the article, evaluate your knowledge on this topic by answering the 10 questions in the e-learning unit; all answers can be found in the article. If you answer the questions correctly, you can download your certificate which can be used in your continuing professional development (CPD) portfolio as evidence of your continued learning and contribute to your revalidation portfolio.
This article highlights the role of general practice nurses (GPNs) in the care of a variety of wounds that are becoming
increasingly commonplace in primary care. GPNs have a unique opportunity to develop their skills in this field, articularly as there is a plethora of wound care products available to them on prescription. However, it is also the GPN’s professional duty to ensure that they have the understanding and knowledge necessary to use these products in a way that benefits patients clinically as well as providing cost-effective care.
Welcome to this second issue of GPN for 2016. We are delighted to share the latest news in the world of Education for Health with you and hope to see you learning with us soon.
We have some great opportunities for you to get involved with us – take advantage of our bursary offer, have a look at our new courses or find out more about the different ways you can study with us.
As always, we hope that you enjoy this issue of GPN and our news update.
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).
Working in the community, at your practice, clinic or with people in their homes, you will see first-hand increasing numbers of people living with multiple long-term conditions. More often than not, you will be the first point of contact for these people when they are unsure how to manage their condition or have health concerns. The onus is on us as caring professionals to learn all we can about how best to deal with these difficult and complex situations. And of course, if we can work to prevent complications arising, reduce risk and encourage patients to manage their health to the best of their ability, then that’s what we should be doing.
Getting patients to access the care they need is not always easy, here Jason Beckford-Ball spoke to Laura Westwick about a project in east London that is connecting cancer patients with local services.
Too often in health care we are guilty of working alone and not utilising colleagues and services around us, even though they may have expertise and experience that might help us do our jobs better.
I have the fortunate role of being Chair of the Association of Advanced Practice Educators-UK (AAPE-UK), an independent non-governmental, not-for-profit association representing all four countries in the UK. Our mission is to coordinate and represent a collaborative network of higher education institutions (HEIs), academics and professionals across the UK who have a common interest in the education, development and advancement of advanced practice.
Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the UK with around 43,000 new cases diagnosed in 2012
(Cancer Research, UK). By 2030, it is predicted that this will be the most common cancer of all (Mistry, 2011). The exponential increase of prostate cancer over the last 40 years is attributed to widespread uptake of the prostate-specific androgen (PSA) test in primary care. Because of this, many prostate cancers are being diagnosed and treated in their very early stages, and subsequently men are living for many years following treatment, or living with indolent disease that will never require treatment in their natural lifespan. As a result, around 84% of men survive for 10 years or more. Prostate cancer has indeed become a ‘long-term condition’.
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