With the ever-expanding role of general practice nurses (GPNs), alongside increased clinical scope and capacity, and increasing pressures of targets, it can be easy to simply ‘tick the boxes’ during an asthma review. However, an asthma review is not only to get an enhanced view of the child or young person’s asthma control in general, but also their individual perceptions, triggers, along with their own agenda or drivers (which may not be the same as the clinicians). By considering social, family or emotional influences, the review can answer crucial questions, such as, ‘Why has this child been to A&E again?’, ‘Why is this child getting through four reliever inhalers each month?’, or, ‘Why have these siblings missed their review again when one was so ill last year?’. This article explores how GPNs are well placed to educate patients and their families about asthma, to discuss inhaler technique, medication use and asthma triggers, as well as to ensure that children and families are aware of the importance of attending their next asthma review. It also discusses the use of tools in assessment and planning.
The cost of treating wounds in the UK is comparable to obesity or cancer, and has a considerable impact on healthcare budgets. However, wound care receives surprisingly little attention, with education on this topic overlooked within the wider healthcare sector. Inadequate training can result in varying levels of care, impacting on patient outcomes, quality of life, and time and money spent on care. This article discusses the importance of accessible and flexible education. It looks at the National Wound Care Strategy Progamme, which aims, among other goals, to improve access to education for practitioners, patients and carers. The importance of continued professional development (CPD) and its impact on patient outcomes and quality of service is also addressed. It then goes on to look at the types of education available, and how we can keep up with the rapid developments in wound care science and available treatments.
Primarily due to better treatment options, there are now over two and a half million people living with cancer in the United Kingdom and it is predicted that in the next fourteen years this number will increase to four million. This means that the numbers of people living with cancer in the UK has increased by approximately half a million in the last five years (Maddams et al, 2012). When all cancers are grouped together, someone diagnosed with cancer today has double the chance of being alive in ten years time compared to someone diagnosed with cancer during the 1970s (Quaresma et al, 2014). This paper will now take three of the four most common cancers in the UK and look at them individually, i.e. breast, prostate, and colorectal cancer.
Four million — or one in 16 — adults in the UK have diabetes (whether or not they are aware of it), and this figure is predicted to increase to an estimated five million by 2025 (Diabetes UK, 2015). The majority have type 2 diabetes and the focus of this article will be on the role of general practice nurses (GPNs) in managing type 2 diabetes, although an overview of pre-diabetes, type 1 diabetes, gestational and steroid-induced diabetes will be provided. The author will also discuss the best current dietary advice that GPNs can provide for patients so that they can manage their own diabetes, as well as looking at the support available for GPNs to facilitate self-care in their day-to-day practice.
Education and training updates!
Welcome to this spring edition of the Journal of General Practice Nursing.
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 — our new general practice nursing courses are already attracting a lot of interest and it’s not too late to get involved.
As always, we hope that you enjoy this issue 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).
Primary care is facing a workforce crisis with reduced numbers of general practitioners (GPs), general practice nurses (GPNs) and community nurses, combined with a shift of healthcare provision from secondary to primary care.