 Hello my name is Claire Carmichael and I am a new qualified general practice nurse and today's vlog is all about why I went into GP and what do I love about it. So when I first started university I had no idea that I would be working in general practice now when I'm qualified. My big plan was to go to university and then I would go back and work in sexual health as a sexual health nurse because that's where I'd been working as a healthcare assistant leading up to university and I loved it so much that I wanted to go back as a nurse but then things changed didn't they. So at the end of first year we had an email with a preference list so this preference list had a whole load of different areas and specialities you could pick three from for your second year and third year placements and they would try and accommodate it that you get one of your preferences out of your top three over your second and third years. So this is where I first saw general practice nursing and it was on the list and I hadn't even given it a thought before and then when I saw it I thought oh actually this would be a really good place to be and it never even occurred to me that I could do that as a student nurse or a newly qualified nurse until I saw it on the form so I ticked it that was my first choice but fortunately I got my first choice which was general practice nursing and I started that placement in my second year so it was my first placement of second year I was there for eight weeks and the minute I stepped foot into that surgery I fell in love I loved the place I loved the feel I felt at home and I just thought this is going to be a really good placement. A very different feeling that I felt when I was in the acute sector in the hospital sector because that that type of environment isn't for everyone and that's okay I used to feel very very guilty for thinking like that but actually it just wasn't for me and that's okay so it was when I started my general practice and I started thinking about primary care and community care and thinking wow this is the place for me I am possibly a general practice nurse so yeah my GP placement is actually what made me want to become a general practice nurse because it was incredible I had the best placement I had the best mentor she was such an amazing role model and I really look up to it even now I think back to that mentor and think okay what would she do in this circumstance and it just it still helps me today and that's the sign of a really good mentor so my reason for choosing GP is purely because I fell in love at first sight as soon as I stepped foot on it I knew I was going to be a GP nurse and by the end of the placement I was loving life I was vlogging about it I was vlogging about it I was making really good networks with other primary care nurses and I just knew that that's it for me and that's where I was going to be so for the rest of my university days that's what my plan was everything I did from there on in sort of paved the way for that general practice job application at the end so what is it about general practice nursing that I love this ties in nicely hand in hand with why I picked general practice because everything I love about it is exactly why I picked it and it's exactly why I love it so much today there's 101 things I do love about general practice I will be here all day trying to explain every single one so I'm going to keep it short and sweet hopefully and share the main things that I love about general practice and there might just be some things in there that might actually surprise you that you didn't know general practice nurses do so in no particular order at number one I love the variety of general practice nursing no day is ever the same you have such a variety between day to day and even when you think you're organized for that day something will happen that changes it up and it's really unexpected or a patient will come in for let's just say their smear test for example and they will tell you something and you'll have to do a whole load of investigating and other things on top of that smear test so it's really really varied and keeps you definitely on your toes all day and here at number two this ties in very nicely with the variety because along with variety we see a variety of patients so we see all fields of nursing we will see children we will see mental health we will see learning disabilities we will see adults we will see from pregnancy to birth all the way to them growing up to literally the end of life so it's just a massive wide range of skills that you're using it's not just seeing the same age groups it's having to adjust every single day every single session every single patient is completely different and that is one of the best things about general practice and here at number three we have the follow-up of your patient one thing that I really really struggled with in the hospital was I don't know what happened to those patients afterwards so even now I look back at my patients that I saw my very first placement I think what happened to that patient I wonder what they're doing now are the families okay are they okay but in general practice you don't have to worry about that because you're seeing your patient time and time again you're making sure your patient is safe and they're okay throughout the whole of their life it is the best thing about general practice and coming in at number four I'm going to put teamwork in here because I have never seen teams work quite like the way general practice works when and again I'm not I don't mean to put hospital in the acute sector down but in that sort of setting you've got people coming and going all the time and you don't get a chance to really form bonds like with the consultants or the doctors you know it'll be a different doctor each day there might be a locum doctor it's constantly changing in hospitals whereas in general practice you are a very small knit team you get to know your colleagues very very well and the bond between the nurses and the doctors and the healthcare assistants and the phlebotomists and the multidisciplinary team around general practice is just amazing like I get on so well with everybody and it's just really nice to feel supported in that environment and I know that even though I'm working independently I know that I can call on that team anytime I want and they will always be there for me and coming in lastly at number five we have got health promotion and prevention so health promotion and prevention is the key key thing that general practice nurses do we do vaccinations we give a lot of education and training to our patients we're trying to prevent that hospital admission and that's something I really really love and something I'm really passionate about is to keep patients out of hospital and make sure they can stay at home for as long as possible and as healthy as possible and it is just the most rewarding thing you can ever do when you recognize someone's just slightly deteriorating and you've prevented that from getting worse and prevented that hospital admission it's just amazing it's such a great feeling so I hope I've explained that well and showed the passion for general practice nursing that I have I absolutely adore it it is amazing I love it so so much there is nothing I don't like about general practice nursing basically and yeah it is definitely a place to be for me just to end this vlog nicely and to sum it up I'm going to use a quote from Forest Gump because this describes GP very very well life is like a box of chocolates you never know what you're going to get and that is so true of general practice each day you never know what you're going to get