Pre-registrant nurses’ perceptions of general practice as a first-post destination
Intended for healthcare professionals
Evidence and practice    

Pre-registrant nurses’ perceptions of general practice as a first-post destination

Cheryl Lythgoe Doctoral student, department of health sciences, University of York, York, England
Paul Galdas Professor of nursing and deputy head of department (director of teaching and learning), University of York, York, England
Beth Hardy Senior lecturer, health sciences, University of York, York, England

Why you should read this article:
  • To be aware of the barriers to recruitment of newly qualified nurses to general practice nursing roles

  • To understand nursing students’ perceptions of entering general practice as a first post

  • To learn about approaches to improving recruitment of newly qualified nurses to general practice nursing roles

Background There is a widespread nursing shortage within the UK, with trends suggesting that vacancies will continue to rise. The challenge is particularly acute in primary care, where unclear recruitment and career pathways mean that only a small proportion of nurses enter general practice within five years of qualifying.

Aim To explore pre-registrant nursing students’ perceptions of entering general practice as a first-post employment destination.

Method A qualitative interpretive description study was undertaken, recruiting final year pre-registrant nursing students. Semi-structured interviews were analysed through a thematic analysis framework.

Findings Three key themes were identified: myths and perceptions of the general practice nurse (GPN) role, the requirement for secondary care experience and a perceived lack of career advice on entering general practice.

Conclusion Visibility and awareness of the GPN role have still not been realised and further work in this area is required.

Primary Health Care. 32, 5, 26-33. doi: 10.7748/phc.2022.e1758

Peer review

This article has been subject to external double-blind peer review and checked for plagiarism using automated software

@CherylCl813

Correspondence

cl813@york.ac.uk

Conflict of interest

None declared

Lythgoe C, Galdas P, Hardy B (2022) Pre-registrant nurses’ perceptions of general practice as a first-post destination. Primary Health Care. doi: 10.7748/phc.2022.e1758

Published online: 27 April 2022

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