For researchers and policy-makers, nurses working in primary care are notoriously hard to reach; they are without a management structure with a chief nurse or director of nursing at the top of the organisation, as is the case for their
colleagues working in a community or hospital-based provider.

So, when more than 3,400 general practice nurses  (GPNs) recently completed a major Queen’s Nursing Institute (QNI) survey, it sent a clear message that the nurses had a story to tell.