Practice Nurse

Job responsibilities

Clinical practice

• Assess, plan, develop, implement and evaluate programmes to promote health and well-being, and prevent adverse effects on health and well-being
• Implement and evaluate individual treatment plans for patients
• Identify, and manage as appropriate, treatment plans for patients at risk of developing a long-term condition
• Prioritise health problems and intervene appropriately to assist the patient in complex, urgent or emergency situations, including initiation of effective emergency care
• Opportunistically encourage and support patients to adopt health promotion strategies that encourage patients to live healthily, and apply principles of self-care
• Provide information and advice on prescribed or over-the-counter medication on medication regimens, side effects and interactions
• Assess and care for patients presenting with uncomplicated wounds
• Support and advise women requesting information relating to family planning needs
• Support and manage health needs of women presenting for cervical cytology consultations
• Recognise, assess and refer patients presenting with mental health needs
• Implement and participate in vaccination and immunisation programmes for both adults and children
• Advise, support and, where appropriate, administer vaccinations for patients travelling abroad
• Promote and deliver evidence-based care for patients presenting with aural conditions

• Utilise and demonstrate sensitive communication styles, to ensure patients are fully informed and consent to treatment
• Communicate effectively with patients and carers, recognising the need for alternative methods of communication to overcome different levels of understanding, cultural background and preferred ways of communicating
• Utilise communication skills to support patients to adhere to prescribed treatment regimens
• Anticipate barriers to communication and take action to improve communication
• Maintain effective communication with individuals and groups within the practice environment
• Act as an advocate when representing the patients and colleagues viewpoints to others

• Recognise and work within own competence and professional code of conduct as regulated by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC)
• Produce accurate, contemporaneous and complete records of patient consultation, consistent with legislation, policies and procedures
• Prioritise, organise and manage own workload in a manner that maintains and promotes quality
• Deliver care according to the national guidelines and evidence-based care
• Assess effectiveness of care delivery through self and peer review, benchmarking and formal evaluation
• Participate in the maintenance of quality governance systems and processes across the organisation and its activities
• Utilise the audit cycle as a means of evaluating the quality of the work of self and the team, implementing improvements where required
• In partnership with other clinical teams, collaborate on improving the quality of health care, responding to local and national policies and initiatives as appropriate
• Support and participate in shared learning across the practice and wider organisation
• Participate in the review of and identify learning from patient complaints, clinical incidents and near-miss events utilising a structured framework (eg root-cause analysis)
• Participate in the performance monitoring review of the team, providing feedback as appropriate
• Understand and apply legal policy that supports the identification of vulnerable and abused children and adults, being aware of statutory child/vulnerable adult health procedure and local guidance
• Work within policies relating to domestic violence, vulnerable adults, substance abuse and addictive behaviour, and refer as appropriate

• Understand own role and scope in the organisation and identify how this may develop over time
• Work as an effective and responsible team member, supporting others and exploring the mechanisms to develop new ways of working
• Delegate clearly and appropriately, adopting the principles of safe practice and assessment of competence of those taking on delegated duties
• Ensure clear understanding and utilisation of referral mechanisms within the practice
• Accept delegation from other nurses, prioritise own workload and ensure effective time-management strategies are embedded in own practice
• Work effectively with others to clearly define values, direction and policies impacting upon care delivery
• Participate in team activities that create opportunities to improve patient care
• Participate in and support local projects as agreed with the practice management team

• Manage and assess risk within the areas of responsibility, ensuring adequate measures are in place to protect staff and patients
• Monitor work areas and practices to ensure they are safe and free from hazards and conform to health, safety and security legislation, policies, procedures and guidelines
• Ensure safe storage, rotation and disposal of vaccines and drugs is undertaken. Where appropriate, oversee the monitoring, stock control and documentation of controlled drug usage according to legal requirements
• Undertake mandatory and statutory training
• Apply infection control measures within the practice according to local and national guidelines
• Apply policies that reduce environmental health risks, are culturally sensitive and increase access to health care for all

• Use technology as an aid to management in planning, implementation and monitoring, presenting and communicating information
• Review and process data about patients using accurate coding in order to ensure easy and accurate retrieval for monitoring and audit processes
• Manage information searches using the internet for example, to retrieve relevant information for patients on their condition
• Understand own and others responsibility to the individual organisation regarding the Freedom of Information Act

• Act as mentor to students, assessing competence against set standards as requested and if appropriately qualified
• Disseminate learning and information gained to other team members in order to share good practice and inform others about current and future developments
• Assess own learning needs and undertake learning as appropriate
• Make effective use of learning opportunities within and outside the workplace, evaluating their effectiveness and feeding back relevant information
• Provide an educational role to patients, carers, families and colleagues in an environment that facilitates learning

• Identify patterns of discrimination, take action to overcome this, and promote diversity and quality of opportunity
• Enable others to promote equality and diversity in a non-discriminatory culture
• Support people who need assistance in exercising their rights
• Be aware of and utilise surgery chaperoning policy as appropriate
• Act as a role model in good practice relating to equality and diversity ...