06 July 2016

Anne Moger gives her views on the new national framework.

Professor Jane Cummings, Chief Nursing Officer for England, officially launched Leading Change, Adding Value: a framework for nursing, midwifery and care staff on 18 May 2016. The event was held in London and live streamed, and with 1,200 devices linked in and connections through Twitter using the hashtag #Lead2Add the estimated reach to people participating globally was over 3.5million.

The framework follows the success of Compassion in Practice (NHS England, 2012) and positions all nursing, midwifery and care staff as leaders who will shape the actions needed to meet the challenges of today and the changing health and care landscape of the future. One of the great legacies created through Compassion in Practice is the 6Cs, and these will remain the foundation of our value base and central to reducing unwarranted variation.

17 November 2015

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 you have read the article, visit the Learning Zone to 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.

Interstitial lung disease is the collective name given to over 200 different types of parenchymal lung disorders (Demedts et al, 2001). They are different from the more common respiratory diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma in that they affect the alveoli, small airways, interstitium and surrounding capillary circulation. Interstitial lung disease causes scarring, which makes it difficult for oxygen to diffuse into the circulating blood, resulting in breathlessness.

03 February 2016

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 you have read the article, visit the learning-zone to evaluate your knowledge on this topic by answering the 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 feature focuses on the  quality of record keeping; why it is important, the standards required, the potential consequences if standards are not met and how  this can be avoided by healthcare professionals and their employer.

29 November 2024

Asthma is the most common longterm condition in children and young people (CYP),  affecting one in 11 five to 18 year olds (Asthma + Lung UK, 2024a). That is around three in every classroom. Most cases are mild to moderate and, in most children, a few  simple interventions can vastly reduce asthma symptoms and risk of attack (Bush and  Fleming, 2015; British Thoracic Society/Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines network  [BTS/SIGN], 2019; Levy, 2020; National Institute for Health and Care Excellence  NICE], 2021). The awareness campaign, #AskAboutAsthma, was established to encourage  everyone seeing CYP with asthma to have these interventions front and centre of their minds.

04 June 2025

Summer has arrived and many of us are daring to get our legs out! That prospect isn’t an option for some people, however.

Across the UK, millions live with lower limb wounds and swelling that is preventable, and treatable — yet too often are given suboptimal care. These conditions can have a huge impact on a patient’s quality of life (Franks et al, 2006; GonzálezConsuegra and Verdu, 2011) and a significant burden on the NHS (Guest et al, 2020).

10 July 2023

I enjoyed reading and reflecting upon the leadership topic covered in this issue’s ‘practice matters’ piece. For me, it is timely, as I feel it’s an important time for general practice nurses to lead in advocating for the value and importance of our role and proactively promote our work within the general practice team. While urgent care has driven general practice recently and attracted resources, long-term conditions are equally important and if not adequately resourced and managed will just continue to drive up the demand for urgent care.

05 December 2022

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men. Across the UK over 47,500 men are diagnosed each year with a 10-year survivorship of approximately 80% (Prostate Cancer
UK, 2022). It is estimated that more than 400,000 men in the UK are living with and beyond prostate cancer (Prostate Cancer UK, 2022).

01 September 2021

The Queen’s Nursing Institute (QNI) and the National Garden Scheme (NGS) have announced the creation of a new scholarship programme for community nurses, the NGS Elsie Wagg Scholarship. The new programme will support five community nurses each year to undertake projects to improve the health and wellbeing of their own community through gardens and gardening initiatives.

The new scholarship was launched at the Queen’s Nurse Annual Meeting on 12th May by the chief executive of the National Garden Scheme, George Plumptre, who said, ‘Elsie Wagg’s name has always been the historic binding of the National Garden Scheme and our founder, the Queen’s Nursing Institute. The scholarship will be a vehicle through which we will together provide tangible evidence of the health benefits of gardens in a series of new projects and I am full of expectation at the exciting projects that I know community nurses are going to come up with.’

Please click the link to read the full article. 

05 December 2023

I found the ‘Practice matters’ article about GPNs and the additional roles reimbursement scheme interesting on several levels. First, it reminds me how well placed we are as GPNs to deliver holistic personalised care across the whole population. Patients regularly
feedback that they like seeing a clinician who can listen to and help with a wide range of health issues.

01 December 2021

Eighty percent of men diagnosed with prostate cancer will end up with erectile dysfunction after treatment (Downing et al, 2019). Yet, talking about sex, treating erectile dysfunction, and meeting the man’s needs after treatment is often lower down on the healthcare professional’s agenda. Prostate Cancer UK found that sex and erectile dysfunction is the biggest unmet need for men with prostate cancer.

Why is that? Is it because we just want to focus on managing the prostate cancer? Are the urinary problems easier to prepare a patient for and treat? Do we find it difficult to talk about sex? Do we make assumptions that because a man is over a certain age, he won’t be having sex, so we don’t need to talk about it? Do we feel that if we ask how the erections are, we might be opening a can of worms and we just don’t have time in clinic? Do we have our own hang ups about sex, prejudices or cultural beliefs that stop us being able to talk openly about sex?