Practice Nurse

We are one of the last remaining traditional small family practices and our much loved practice nurse,who has been with us for 25 years, is retiring.

This gives us an opportunity to rethink how we provide nursing care to our 2,200 patients. Atthis point we don't have fixed ideas and we are open to your suggestions.

This practice is consistently ranked in the top five in England for patient satisfaction andgood relationships with our patients have always been important in our work.

What is important to usis that you are capable, that you fit in well into our small friendly team andthat you can communicate well with our patients.

Don't let a lack ofprimary care experience put you off! If you fit these criteria you may well bejust who we are looking for.

This advert says 0.32

WTE but we wanted to say "12-24 hours"- according to the candidates available.

As a guide we mightlook for 12 hours of health care assistant time at band 3 and 12 hours of band5 or 6 nurse time. However more of one and less of the other might also workwell. Our ideal working hours may prove challenging for one person, particularly if they don't live locally on the other hand, the opportunities of working atthe Adderlane Surgery may just suit you perfectly!

We have not specified the Band of this post to avoid putting off the right candidate. If you are theright person, have limited experience, but are willing and able to learn thenwe would be happy to work with you.

You will be the senior,and maybe the only, nurse working at this practice. This is therefore not ahighly specialised nurse role but rather is one which offers a breadth of responsibility and therefore requires a breadth of interest in primary care nursing.

Core responsibilities will include taking blood samples, checking blood pressures and giving injections including childhood immunisations and taking smears. Wider opportunities include recording and assessing other parameters such as respiratory function measures, ECGs and neuropathy testing in diabetes.

Beyond this are opportunities to be involved in the management of hypertension, asthma, COPDand diabetes according to your abilities, under the supervision of the doctors, and with training offered as needed.

Underlying all of thiswe are looking for someone who is good at helping our patients feel at ease,and encouraging them to take part in looking after their own health a good practice nurse will find many opportunities for health education and for supporting people through health problems and life in general.

This post offers an opportunity to play an important role in the care of over 2,200 patients and tobuild up important relationships within the practice team and with the friendly community we serve.

The Adderlane Surgeryis one of the smallest family practices in the North East and can trace its origins to the 1870s. We believe in the importance of ready accessibility and approachability of all our team members and good long-term relationships withinthe team and between ourselves and the community we serve. Long term personal continuity of care is at the heart of what we seek to provide and we are proudof the fact that we have worked together in knowing our families over manyyears.

This is general practice with strengths you might have imagined 40 or 50 years ago something which our patients greatly appreciate and which we enjoy.

The latest GP patient survey ranks us as one of the best five practices in England and has done for anumber of years.

We recognise thatover-stressed staff of all grades do not perform to the best of their ability and we work hard to reduce the risk of our team members being over strained.

There are times when we are busy, but we feel these are well balanced by thetimes we are not and we work to make each other's work lives a pleasure and nota pain.

We are currently a teamof two doctors, one nurse, a manager, a secretary and two receptionists and weall have an important role to play in delivering the great care we seek toprovide why not come and join us?

• Evidence of training or qualifications for the responsibilities of the post.
• Competence
• Willingness to learn and adapt to change.
• A cheerful hard working attitude.
• An ability to communicate well with our patients and their families.
• Friendliness and an ability to work well in our small team.

• Evidence of training or qualifications for the responsibilities of the post.
• Competence
• Willingness to learn and adapt to change.
• A cheerful hard working attitude.
• Flexibility in dealing with day to day variations in demand.
• An ability to communicate well with our patients and their families.
• Friendliness and an ability to work well in our small team.
• Previous experience with the management of long term conditions will be helpful but we are happy to ensure training is provided if necessary to ensure an ability to deliver required services.

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act…