GP Nursing Pros & Cons

Debbie discusses her personal pros and cons for GP Nursing as a profession and gives some insight to help you decide whether it could be right for you.

Topics Covered In This Article

Introduction

Weekday Working

Pay

Continuity Of Care

Smaller Team Size

Patient Wellness

Autonomy

More Opportunity

Conclusion

Introduction

Hello, my name is Debbie and I'm a practice Nurse in London.

Today, I'm going to be discussing the pros and cons in practice nursing.

Now just a disclaimer, my pros and my cons are personal to me, but there may be something that you may find to be fine. So let's get into it.

So how I'm going to do it is I'm going to say a pro and I'm going to counteract it with the con of that pro if that makes sense.

Weekday Working

So, number one, Monday to Friday.

As a practice Nurse, you very rarely work weekends in your contract and it is Monday to Friday or Monday to Thursday or one day a week you have off or you have a half day, etc.

So there is no shift work, there are no night shifts and bank holidays you have off.

Now for me, this is a big pro.

However, for some people, this may be a con because with no shift work means working Monday through Friday means you rarely have time off in the week and you can't do extra shifts.

Whereas in the ward, if you work three, four days a week, you can top it up with extra shifts and that can obviously help boost your finances.

But for me, that's not a problem.

I enjoy working Monday to Friday and having my weekends and bank holidays off.

Pay

Number two, pay.

Now, GP practices are privately funded and of course, they see NHS patients as well as being under the NHS, but they do not follow the agenda for change pay scale nor do they follow the banding system that the hospital follows.

So this means that your pay can be negotiated.

So you can basically, according to the skills that you have, negotiate your pay. Now this can be a big pro and it can also be a big con.

Practices are funded according to the patients that they see, the targets that they meet, etc, if the practice does not have the funds that you would like to be paid or the salary that you like to be paid, you'd obviously want to move practices.

However, it can serve as a pro because you know you're not at a set salary and after a few months after you've done a few changes, you can go to your manager again and be like, "Okay, I've done this, you've done a few trainings. I've done this, I've done that and so I would like my salary to increase."

So I think that is a big pro, but it can serve as a con because I personally think, especially with nursing, I don't think that we're really taught, unless you know, it's within you, it's by nature how to negotiate your salary, I don't think within our course and the way it is we're really taught on how to negotiate our salary.

Continuity Of Care

Number three would be a pro, I would say, is the continuity of care.

So you are able to see the same patients over and over again.

There's some children that you would see when they are eight weeks old for their first immunizations and then you get to see them at one and then three.

And then, I get patients that come in and they're like, "The other Nurse, because my other Nurse here has been here like 17 years."

And it's like, "She saw me when I was a child," and now they're in their twenties and it's like, they still know her, so I think that's amazing.

For me, the con of this sometimes with continuity of care is that sometimes it can be repetitive in terms of so there are patients that I do their dressings for them over and over again because maybe they've got a non-healing ulcer or usually that's the main type of dressing.

So it's just like every week or every other time, twice a week seeing the same wound over and over again, which can be a bit tedious to be honest.

But other than that, I think continuity of care is amazing.

Smaller Team Size

Now number four, I would say for me, is a big pro.

And that is that in a GP practice, you are in a smaller team.

So in my practice, there are only two Nurses, me and another lady, and we've got one healthcare assistant, that is the nursing team.

We have a few doctors, one in-house pharmacist, one social worker, and the rest are just admin team.

We have physio as well.

However, you are in your room, you're seeing your patients, it's not as busy and hustle and bustle as the hospital would be what I would say.

Now this can serve as a big con as well because in the hospital, what I find is if you need help, you can just pull someone and just ask someone if you need help, but in a GP practice, you have your list, everybody has their list, everybody has their patients, and so everybody's busy and everyone's got something to do, which can make it quite hard to ask for help sometimes.

But I do love having a small and intimate team personally.

Patient Wellness

And number five, I would say is a big one for me.

And that is being able to see well patients, patients who are well, they've just come in maybe for a blood test, they might have a few hiccups here and there, "I've got a cough, I've got a cold," all these things, but they are not critically ill. And for me, I like that.

It's good for my mental health.

And yeah, I enjoy seeing that.

As a con, which I wouldn't really say is a con, but there are certain skills that you keep going or you know because you've worked in a critical setting.

So for example, being able to do an IV quickly or being able to really notice a deteriorating patient very quickly, patient very rarely deteriorate right before my eyes in clinic.

So therefore, that's a skill that I'm always trying to keep on top of simply because I don't see it every day.

So that can also be a con.

Autonomy

Number six I would say is being an autonomous practitioner.

This is big for me.

Like I enjoy the fact that I can speak to my patients and tell them this is what you need to do and what I say and how we negotiate together and make that shared decision-making, being able to do that with my patient one-on-one, I really love and enjoy that.

Now this can prove as a con, especially when you are newly qualified, because at the beginning, you're quite doubtful of your clinical reasoning, your clinical decisions and you're always having to ask for help.

And then it goes back to being in a small team 'cause when you're in a smaller team, there's less people to ask help from.

So this can be a little bit of a con because you know what you say to that patient there and then and that is what they're going to take on board.

But once you've brushed up on your skills and you're getting a lot better, you've become very confident in yourself and your clinical skills.

More Opportunity

So lastly, number seven, which I would say is a pro and I don't think it has a con, is the opportunity to specialize.

Now within a GP setting, I think it's easier to specialize without having to apply for a whole new role. So within a practice, they may need a diabetes specialist, for example.

I use diabetes because that's something that I'm passionate about.

And once they know that that is your interest, there's clearly a need in almost every practice for a diabetes and Nurse specialist or an asthma Nurse specialist or a sexual health Nurse, for example.

So as long as you're willing to study, you can stay within that same practice, study and then become the lead Nurse or the specialist Nurse in your practice. Whereas for example, in the ward to become a specialist you have to apply for a whole new role, join a whole new department if you start off in the ward.

So if you're in a respiratory ward, you can be working on that ward and once you want to become a respiratory Nurse specialist, you would need to apply for that whole role, which you don't have to do in a GP setting, which I find great.

Conclusion

So I hope that's helpful.

Just like in any job, there are pros and cons everywhere you go, nowhere is perfect.

Just find what works for you and negotiate for what will work for you and hopefully, you are gonna find your dream job.