A Tool Kit for Practice Nurses

Practice Nurses provide a substantail and important role in caring for patients within a transforming primary care setting. Recent changes outlined in the NHS Plan, as well as the demands of Clinical Governance agendas, National Service Frameworks, HlmP priorities, together with working force planning and conditions such as Agenda for Change, will all impact on current practice.

Like other health care staff, Practice Nurses will need to ensure that quality underpins their every day practice. The need for systematically defining and developing core competencies, the pursuit of continuinf professional development activites and of benchmarking practice in order to ensure a quality service, is now more pressing than ever.

The Tool Kit for Practice Nurses provides an overarching framework of value to the Practice Nurse as well as their employing organisation, ie the PCGs/PCTs. It provides:

• a CORE COMPETENCIES tool kit to be used by individual Practice Nurses and their emplying PCGs/PCTs to promote and demonstrate effectiveness and appropriate skill mix
• a tool kit to be used by the Practice Nurse as a PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLAN to ensure that immediate and long term development needs are met in order to provide a quality service
• a tool kit of QUALITY INDICATORS to be used on a phased approach both by the Practice Nurse and their PCGs/PCTs to promote the use of best nursing practice to demonstrate professional quality and to meet the demands of Clinical Governance