Most nurses come into practice nursing after working in secondary care, or community nursing, for a few years. Considering this is a common route into a local GP surgery a lot of interested people don’t know where to start!
Although there sometimes appear to be less opportunities for a newly qualified nurse to become a practice nurse, there is a lot of support in place should you wish to take this route into primary care.
The best option is to request placements in primary care during your training to be a nurse. Requests are often received for final management placements from pre-registration nurses, and this works well.
Internal Training
Whether you’re a new or experienced nurse there will be training available to you to transition to this role. This means that you can still work in general practice whilst you’re training.
Some practices may advertise vacancies saying that training and support is available. If you’re interested in training to be a practice nurse then contact the practices you’d like to work with. If you’re unsure who to contact another option for information is your local training hub as they will know who are training practices in your area.
Primary Care Careers can help facilitate either of these discussions, so please don’t hesitate to get in touch!
External Training
Alternatively, to in-the-role-training there are several routes to learn whilst working. These include individual study days, The fundamentals of Practice Nursing course and the General practice nurse fellowship which offers funding and support for the first two years similar to a preceptorship.
We have included here a list of universities who offer the fundamentals of Practice Nursing course, but make sure to contact your nearest university for information on the courses they provide.
