Health Education England Yorkshire and Humber will pilot a scheme for GP practices to recruit and train new practice nurses.
The scheme, GPN Ready, is still in its early stages, however the initial plan is for it to run in the Yorkshire and Humber region only.
‘The GPN Ready Scheme has been identified as a way to encourage GP practices to employ new nurse registrants by helping facilitate the first two years of their professional development,’ said a spokesperson from HEE.
The programme is aimed at new nurses in order to encourage them into general practice to combat the retirement bulge threatening the practice nurse workforce.
HEE will provide up to £8000 per nurse for their learning and development in the first two years in practice.
In the first year there will be an appropriate education plan put in place by the new nurse employee and the supervisor at their practice. In the second year the plan will continue but will expand to include an NMC approved mentorship programme.
At the moment only 50 places have been made available and practices will be able to begin applying soon.
The nurse will have to be registered with the NMC no earlier than 1 August 2016.
HEE will record the success of the scheme through the number of new nurse registrants in practice after one year.
Yorkshire and Humber was previously the first area to introduce a scheme to give adult student nurses access to a GP practice placement as part of their pre-registration training.