New voluntary standards for general practice nurses

New voluntary standards on the education and practice of senior general practice nurses have been drawn up by the Queen’s Nursing Institute, aiming to improve the availability and content of training courses and provide guidance to practice nurses and their employers

Essential facts

The Queen’s Nursing Institute (QNI) and QNI Scotland started a project to set voluntary standards for senior general practice nurses (GPN) after a survey published in 2016 of more than 3,400 of the nurses identified a lack of consistency in educational opportunities and a pressing need to recruit more nurses to these roles.

Only half of respondents said their employer always supported their professional development.

Currently there are no courses approved by the NMC in Northern Ireland and Scotland, and provision of courses in England and Wales is limited.

Nursing and Midwifery Council