Nursing in Practice May/June 2020 (issue 114) | Page 27

How has the crisis changed the way
nurses feel about pay levels, morale,
essential services and the nursing
associate role? Mimi Launder reports
On 8 April Nursing in Practice’s publisher Cogora
released its seventh major report on the state of
primary care. Practice nurses, advanced nurse
practitioners, district nurses and community
nurses were among the 3,610 healthcare professionals
who took part in the survey in November and December
last year. Then the Covid-19 crisis hit. We look at the
results of the 2019 survey and whether the picture would
be different if the questions were asked now.
for a pay rise
s are traditionally reluctant to ask for a pay rise,
s and conditions. Cogora’s annual State of
report 2019 found that 30% of GPNs – or 188
ponses, including ANPs – have not asked for
r pay or terms and conditions in their current
le. Of the two-thirds of nurses surveyed in the
primary care report who had tried to negotiate
an improved contract, half succeeded and
half failed. Practice nurses were most likely to
be unsuccessful in negotiations, with 35%
of the 459 surveyed not achieving what they
wanted, compared with just 27% of the
157 ANPs surveyed. But nurses told Nursing
n Practice that the coronavirus outbreak has
wn their worth, empowering them to ask for
The
outbreak
has shown
the worth
of practice
nurses
onfident that in my new role, I am able to
ursing team and the patients we see, to provide
s.’
an, a nurse at The Adam Practice in Dorset,
g a nursing associate has been ‘valuable’
demic. ‘It enables the practice to offer a full
both in practice and the community.’
d Morgan, business manager at Penistone
e in Sheffield, said the coronavirus had not
re willing to hire a nursing associate. ‘The
re and workload of the practice does not
rrently suit it,’ she told Nursing in Practice.
Nursing
associates
are
perfectly
placed to
support
those
returning
to the NHS
in this
difficult
time