Advanced practitioners improve efficiency and patient satisfaction

There is a need for the role of advanced nursing practice in primary care. The King’s Fund has highlighted the current pressures within the NHS in relation to patient access and the fact that many services are running at overcapacity.¹ The Department of Health (DH)² encourages advanced skills of nurses to meet the growing demands of services and the NHS Plan³ advocates nurses being at the forefront of primary health care.

Within the author’s primary care practice patients were dissatisfied with the amount of time they waited for a routine GP appointment. The practice was facing increasing demands from patients who required or requested urgent appointments and it needed to be able to provide an efficient and effective service for them.