Today's vlog is all about how to progress and the types of progression that you can do as a General Practice Nurse, because a lot of people think that once you're a General Practice Nurse, that's it until the end of your days.

And that's just not true.

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0.25 Specialise In A Certain Area

The first thing you can do is you can specialise in a certain area.

So if you're really into diabetes management or things like asthma or COPD, anything like hypertension, you can specialise in those areas and you can become the specialist lead for your clinic, if that makes sense.

You could do things like women's health.

There's an amazing role out there, especially for women's health as well to deal with things like menopause, things that people don't really talk about or shy away from, which shouldn't happen, but it does.

There are set roles to do that as well.

1.00 Becoming A Nurse Prescriber or Advanced Nurse Practitioner

The next thing you can do is you can do a prescribing course, so you could become a Nurse Prescriber as well.

That's like the next step that you can take.

I'm trying to do it like step by step.

It might not be in a particular order though, so don't quote me on this.

But yes, you can do your prescribing course at university and become a Nurse Prescriber.

And then you can also do the Advanced Nurse Practitioner's course, and this means that you are... please don't quote me on this, but I think it's almost on par as like a Junior Doctor.

So you will be more sort of diagnosing different symptoms in patients.

You'll be doing chest examinations.

You are like a Junior Doctor in a way, rather than dealing with long-term condition management and health promotion and things that we do as a General Practice Nurse and you will also be able to prescribe as well, as an Advanced Nurse Practitioner.

And you don't really need years and years of experience either to become an Advanced Nurse Practitioner.

I know someone that went in as a Newly Qualified Nurse into general practice, and then she went straight in for her Advanced Nurse Practitioner course straight away.

So I know there are some requirements that you have to have, I think, a minimum of three years' experience as a GP nurse, but people will take you on and put you through the Advanced Nurse Practitioner course as well.

So have a look around and see what you want to do.

2.19 A GP Nurse Partner

So the next thing that you can do is you can become a GP partner.

So this is, I'm still not 100% certain on the whole role of this, but you are going to be the person that makes decisions and choices about the running of the practice that you're working at.

So it would be more of a money side of things and business management side of things and how things are organized, that sort of thing.

Again, don't quote me on this, I'm not 100% certain on business partners because I don't get involved in that sort of area as a GP nurse.

I don't do that sort of role.

So I can only go by what I know already, if that makes sense.

But yes, you can be a GP Nurse Partner and have the control of some of the decisions, which I think is amazing.

I think in every single practice, there should be a Nurse Partner, there should be a GP partner, even an Advanced Nurse Practitioner partner to get a whole scale of different partners.

So you've got an input from each member.

I think that's a really, really good idea, I think.

3.28 Working Alongside Training Hubs And The CCGs

Another thing that you can do is work alongside the training hubs and the CCGs.

So you could do things like more education.

So educating students that you get into your clinics, setting up training packages for them, for Nurses and Newly Qualified Nurses as well coming into your practice.

All those sorts of things.

So it's more of an education role.

Also, you could work alongside the universities and do lecturing as well at the university, as well as doing your clinics.

That's another thing that you potentially do.

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3.45 Become The Lead Nurse For Your Area

You could also become the Lead Nurse for your area.

You could be the Lead Nurse for your whole clinic, and as well as your whole area.

Each area or each city will have their own areas.

We have three GP practices in our area.

You could be the Lead Nurse for those three GP practices, if that makes sense.

So wherever you are, you will be the Lead Nurse for all of those GP practices.

And I think that would be an amazing role to go into, to be honest.

And I imagine that role to be more, again, it's more like business management, it's more overseeing the practices, doing audits and targets and running of the practices, what can be done better, improving, what's not going so well, and how can we do things differently.

I think there's going to be a lot of CQC stuff as well, inspections, a lot of paperwork side of it.

That's what I see in my head anyway, but as well as that, supporting the staff and being that overall person that people can come to as well.

Again, dealing with the training and that sort of thing.

I think overall that role to me sounds amazing.

I think that sounds like an absolutely fantastic role.

And then you could go a step up and actually be the head of your region.

You can be your General Practice Nurse head of region.

So you're not just the Lead Nurse anymore, you are the head of your whole region.

It's not just localised anymore.

It's absolutely everybody that's classed in your region.

How many times can I say region in this vlog?

Sorry, guys.

5.16 The Head Of General Practice Nursing & Above

A step up from region is literally UK-wide.

You could be the Head of General Practice Nursing at the top, basically.

And then if you really wanted to progress, you could go for the CNO position, Chief Nursing Officer role, that is Ruth May at the minute.

If you really wanted to go up, up, up, up, and have all of that going on, then you could absolutely do that as well.

5.40 Digital & Online Roles

A very different type of role that you could do is more digital sort of communications and marketing, that sort of role.

We have an amazing person on our GPN SNN team who does the GPN digital stuff.

And I think their role is more handling the systems and designing different things and having more of an input on the IT stuff.

And do the risk assessments and stuff online.

I think it's more of a digital, dealing with computers and that sort of thing, that sort of role.

Also, I know there's a lot of stuff coming up as well because of lockdown and the pandemic and everything.

So everything is going more online and doing webinars and things like that.

I think their role is doing more of that stuff at the minute and how to work our ways around it and doing video consultations and things like that.

So, yeah, it's a really exciting, amazing role at the minute, I think.

Naturally, I have been thinking about my future and where I would like to go.

And I've been seeing these amazing posts for these Lead Nurses, Regional Lead Nurses and things like that.

I've been looking at the qualifications that that sort of role would have to have, and they've all said, they all want a Master's or further degree, add on things.

I am thinking ahead now and I'm starting to think, "Okay, what can I do next to get a lead role in the area I want to work in?".

6.59 It’s Not All About Qualifications

However, it's not all about qualifications.

There are some amazing roles out there as well that you don't need the extra Master's or Public Health Master's or anything like that.

So just have a look, have a really good search online, and get as much information as possible and what sort of things that you would need just to set yourself up and get those stepping stones in place to where you want to be in life.

That is it from me.

I think I've covered a lot of things.

If I've missed anything out, I'm really sorry.

This list is not limited to it all.

GP and the progression and different things that you can do is just so wide, it is absolutely amazing.

But my biggest piece of advice is, just have a research, have a look around, and think about where you want to be and how to get there and if this is something you want to do.

If you don't want to do that sort of thing, that's okay too.

I mean, General Practice Nursing is an amazing, amazing career in itself.

Don't be too pressured if you don't want to do that sort of thing, but I just wanted to show overall the amazing progression that you can do if that's for you.

Let me know in the comments your thoughts on career progression as a GP Nurse and what I've said about above - let's chat there!

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Career Progression Options For GP Nurses