Are Nurses Prepared for Practice Nursing?

The practice nurses' role has developed to become increasingly complex in recent years in response to changes in healthcare.   This development has been enthusiastically taken up by practice nurses, and has now resulted in the situation where nurses come into general practice from specialised hospital areas who may not have all the skills and knowledge they need for this work.   Concerns about this have been expressed at many levels from individual practice nurses to the Scottish Executive, resulting in the proposal that specific preparation for this role is needed on entry.

This project aims to develop a nationally recognised accredited programme for new practice nurses and to consider:
Educational preparation
Mentorship
Competencies
Stakeholder perspectives

Comment is welcomed from interested parties on the above issues relating to the initial preparation of practice nurses.

Further information about the project can be found at: http://www.nes.scot.nhs.uk

If you would like to comment on these issues or on your experiences - either positive or not so positive - you can email or write to:

General:
Fiona Bell (Project Officer):
Jane Cantrell (Programme Director):

NHS Education for Scotland, 3rd Floor Hanover Buildings, 66 Rose Street, Edinburgh EH2 2NN