Nurse practitioners in general practice: an expanding role

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Abstract
At a time when the government is proposing to allow nurses to become equal partners with GPs and a consultative report commissioned by the NHSE found that nurse practitioners provide cheaper and better services for patients (NHSE 1996), this article describes the role of a nurse practitioner working in a GP fundholding practice in the UK. The author considers issues of autonomy and accountability surrounding the development of the role. Its relationship to the development of nursing and caring is examined in the light of some doctors’ and nurses’ scepticism and ambivalence. The benefits to patients are presented to highlight the value of a properly structured nurse practitioner role integrated into primary care provision The title nurse practitioner causes a great deal of confusion among nurses and between nurses and other professional healthcare workers. Definitions of the role have proved problematic, but according to Pickersgill (1995): ‘Aset of defining characteristics suggests that a nurse practitioner is commonly thought to be an independent, autonomous and expert clinician educated to an advanced level. In addition, he or she should be able to make decisions in relation to the assessment and treatment of patients, carry his or her own caseload as well as make and receive referrals from other healthcare professionals.’

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