how to become a practice nurse?

sarimalik

I'm a general nurse with my full bachelors and registration. I've been working in an agency for the past 2 months (my only experience) but I've also wanted to work in a GP's practice as a practice nurse. Can anyone tell me how to make this possible, please?

Dozen Wicked Words

sarimalik wrote: »

I'm a general nurse with my full bachelors and registration. I've been working in an agency for the past 2 months (my only experience) but I've also wanted to work in a GP's practice as a practice nurse. Can anyone tell me how to make this possible, please?

Congrats on the qualifications, but I would have thought a gp practice would want more practical experience than 2 months. There are loads of nurses who would probably like to get off the hospital wards, particularly the way things are at the moment, so competition will be fierce. I imagine wound care and phlebotomy would be useful. Maybe go to your local practice and ask the nurse how she got started. I think GP practices advertise positions same as any other job.

You could also mail your cv around local practices, to see what feedback you might get.

L1011

Practice nurse jobs often get advertised in the job pages of the Medical Times, Medical Independent and so on; would rarely be an issue without at least one ad up.

Idiopath

I'd imagine you'd need a lot more experience to work as a practice nurse...

Practice nurses are involved in huge amounts of patient education, addressing complex health needs, assessments of how patients with chronic illness are progressing. A lot of them run wound care clinics, carry out procedures such as smear testing, venepuncture, vaccinations etc. They see their own patients and manage their own case load a lot of the time. There's a lot of responsibility and accountability there.

If practice nursing is your goal, i'd recommend trying to get some more experience in the acute setting and in other areas of primary care (eg community nursing) and doing some CPD modules like wound care and pain management.

Best of luck with it though!