Nurse Practitioner (NP)
Nurse Practitioners are qualified to see patients with undifferentiated and undiagnosed medical problems, and to make detailed assessment of their health care needs, based on their combined medical and nursing knowledge, including clinical skills that you may not have traditionally associated with nurses, such as history taking, physical examination, diagnoses, and prescribing of medicines. Nurse Practitioners can also directly refer patients to clinical specialists, such as hospital consultants.
- Sandra Swinfield
RGN Dip., Asthma Care Dip., CHD dip., BSc (Hons)
As well as being a fully qualified practice nurse, our Nurse Practitioner has also been trained to run GP surgeries and can diagnose, treat, consult, refer and write prescriptions for you.
Practice Nurses
Practice Nurses are fully trained in a wide range of skills including immunisations, health promotion, contraception and management of long-term conditions e.g. advice on diet and lifestyle choices, coronary heart disease, hypertension, asthma, diabetes, smoking cessation and obesity. Practice Nurses can extend their skills at Diploma Level and see many patients who previously would have seen the Doctor.
The Nursing Team run various Nurse-led clinics for diabetes, asthma, coronary heart disease and COPD as well as providing general nursing services, dressings, removal of sutures and blood tests.
Healthcare Assistants (including Phlebotomy)
Healthcare Assistants are non-registered Nursing staff who assist in patient care and Practice related duties, as directed by and under the supervision of a Registered Healthcare Professional (including Lead Practice Nurse, Practice Manager and GPs). Healthcare Assistants work collaboratively with the General Practice Team to meet the needs of patients, and provide essential task-orientated services like taking blood samples (phlebotomy), processing specimens, sometimes performing ECGs (to measure heart function) and spirometry (to measure lung function). They play a crucial role in supporting the Clinical Team.
You can book an appointment to have your blood test at either Parkside or Gander Green Lane Surgery.