Transforming nursing for community and primary care

Community and primary care nursing services in England are at the very forefront of individualised services that need to be shaped by the voices of service users, carers and the public, in response to their health needs.

Our Transforming Nursing for Community and Primary Care workforce programme supports the delivery of the new models of care described in the Five Year Forward View, by ensuring that the NHS has the right number of nursing staff, in the right place, with the right skills, values and behaviours. By transforming this workforce, we’re enabling care to be delivered in community and primary care settings, improving patient outcomes and the experience of patients, carers and staff.

Caring for people through high quality integrated services near to or at a place they call home are cost-effective and is what patients and their carers tell us they want. The fundamental role of district and general practice nursing delivers this by providing services that promote health and well-being, encourage self-care and deliver personalised health outcomes in the person’s own home, local surgery and in other community based settings.

As both nursing services are focussed on meeting the health and care needs of people in communities, they require particular competencies, flexibility, the ability to work in partnership with patients, carers and communities, as well as in concert with a range of other professional and voluntary workers and carers.

Developed in partnership with nursing stakeholders, the District Nursing and General Practice Nursing Service Education and Career Framework - available as interactive and print-ready PDFs - outlines the specialist knowledge, skills and experience required to deliver district and general practice nursing care.

The Framework supports standardisation of roles within both disciplines across England and sets out the required skills and education for both – enabling practitioners to plan and develop careers and assist workforce planning, service and educational commissioning.

Both frameworks outline core and specific competencies, identify learning needs, and highlight where the two roles link or can be interchanged. The document has been developed to support the work of practitioners, commissioners, employers, educationalists, workforce planners, policymakers, regulators, indemnifiers, strategists and most of all to enable service users, carers and the public to have a greater understanding of these nursing services.