24 | Nursing in Practice | Winter 2022
MY DAY
Working as an ANP
and practice partner
Ben Scott , an ANP and practice partner at Blyth Road Medical Centre in Rotherham , tells Mimi Launder about how he spends his day managing both patients and his practice
NEIL O ’ CONNOR
07.00
I leave the house around 6.30am and arrive by around 7am . The GP and I are usually the first ones in . I open up the building and spend 10 minutes firing up the computers before having a morning catch-up with the GP . Next , I look at out-of-hours contacts via NHS 111 from the previous evening . If necessary , I might arrange to see a patient who called 111 overnight . Although the patient might have been asked to contact the medical centre and book an appointment that day , I will step in and schedule one if I think it is warranted , or I might chase up the patient if they don ’ t book in . I also take a quick look to see if any bloods came in late .
08:00
I see my first patient at 8am . I prefer to see patients face-to-face , so my appointments are predominantly in person unless they are follow-ups . As an experienced ANP , there ’ s not really much I don ’ t do . For the first hour of morning surgery , appointments are pre-bookable . After that , the appointments are deemed urgent and bookable on the day . I might deal with wound care if there is no one in to do this , as well as multiple long-term conditions , and vaccinations and immunisations . For that first hour before contracted hours begin , there ’ s no one else there apart from the GP and the cleaner , so there are no interruptions . It ’ s beautiful . I get a lot done in that hour .
If I ’ m on call , staff who need advice will visit me in my room to ask questions . We have a few staff members – an advanced clinical pharmacist , a recently transitioned ANP , two healthcare assistants and a practice nurse . I will get input from them throughout the day .
On a day when I ’ m not on call , clinics are slightly longer , but with an admin block in the middle to catch up with letters , bloodwork and other tasks you can ’ t do when you ’ re on call . There are fewer interruptions , so my focus can be fully on the day job , rather than a million things at once . But I love the variety and the challenge – I think that ’ s what keeps people in primary care .
11:30
After morning surgery , we tend to have a 15-minute debrief and then I ’ ll shoot downstairs to see if anything has come in during the morning from paramedics or district nursing teams . After that , I jump onto admin – reauthorising prescriptions or dealing with queries . 30
12:30
I normally take 45 minutes to an hour for lunch with other people . I like everyone to join if possible . I think it ’ s important to get people together , although it ’ s not always possible . I love my staffing group like family . It ’ s the genuine truth – I wouldn ’ t have done this job if it ’ d been different people . I would have stayed in my post as clinical director for Doncaster South PCN and as a salaried ANP . I only made this change because of the people coming to work .
13:15
After lunch , my appointments are made up mostly of reviews , follow-ups , joint injections and complex diabetes patients , as I have a special interest in diabetes .
15:00
My afternoon clinics are a carbon copy of the morning , with a block of pre-bookable slots and a block of on-the-day appointments .
17:30
After my afternoon clinics finish , I again sort through bloods , prescriptions and letters . On an on-call day , I get home at around 7.30pm .
When I ’ m not on call , I tend to finish clinic at about 5pm . Once a week I might finish seeing patients at 3pm , although I stay later to get more bits done . When I ’ m not on call , I can focus more on my work as a partner . This might include dealing with staffing problems , complaints , safeguarding incidents or issues with our building and energy . For example , our energy costs have gone up by 65-70 %, to about £ 1,000 a month . However , these issues can crop up at any time on any day . So , depending on severity , I might end up dealing with them at home on my laptop or over the weekend .
Some people may see general practice as a Monday-to- Friday job , but it ’ s absolutely not . Every Sunday , our GP has his computer on and he ’ s done so for years .
I have to fit other roles around this work . I sit on the NHS England shared decision-making board for primary care nursing . I am also a nurse representative for Rotherham Place , which cascades to the South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw ICB .
Like most other people , I do flag sometimes but I love my work and when I ’ m fully charged , I can juggle all these responsibilities and do a good job .
Profile Ben Scott
Location Blyth Road Medical Centre , Rotherham Role Advanced nurse practitioner and practice partner
Areas of responsibility Ben Scott is one of just 51 nurse partners working in general practice , according to NHS England figures . He previously held the position of clinical director for Doncaster South Primary Care Network , where he also worked as an ANP .