 Hi everyone and welcome back to another vlog so today's vlog is all about how to get into general practice nursing. I keep getting this question lately so I think it's time that I did like a proper vlog on it. I have touched upon it in other vlogs and different titles of vlogs I've included it so I'm dedicating a whole vlog to this question. An easiest shortest answer is just apply. Literally search on NHS jobs, search other job sites, have a look on the general practice website themselves, contact local practices to you where you want to work and ask if they've got any vacancies at the minute. Another thing you can do as well is contact the local CCG to your area so literally just google CCG, Birmingham for example and it should bring up a website for your local CCG and they sort of oversee all of the general practices in your area. This is something that I did as well and I contacted someone and just said do you know of any vacancies in the area sent them a CV, my cover letter and they were able to really help me out actually so this was a really good tip that someone gave to me. Obviously don't bombard people they are quite busy at the minute with the Covid and the pandemic and all of that jazz so you might not get a sort of response straight away so just have some patience send the one email and yeah see what happens. Another really good thing you can do is approach social media like put a tweet out put a Facebook message and Facebook groups out there get Instagram in have a look on LinkedIn as well a really underrated app but they they're going to be posting job vacancies and things like that on there as well. Just have a really good look on social media because sometimes people don't advertise publicly and sometimes you might just find a little tweet or something like that or a Facebook group where someone's just said you know we really need a nurse is anyone looking so Twitter is my first love. I will always promote Twitter for making really good networks in nursing because it there's an amazing community out there and there might not be public job posts out there but there might be one coming up as well so this is why social media is another good use for that sort of thing as well so put something out there get making some networks get your name out there and hopefully you'll find something soon. You do not need years and years experience of nursing to become a general practice nurse you don't need to go to the wards first to get experience to go into general practice this is a myth I keep trying to bust and as well with the GPN SNN ambassadors that I'm part of we always try and dispel this myth because it is a myth you don't need years of experiences become a general practice nurse like myself and a lot of other nurses out there we were newly qualified nurses went straight into GP 18 months in now and I'm still standing. However I know there are some old school general practices that are putting on their application forms experience practice nurses only still apply because they will not get as many as you think applying and if you show all of your transferable skills on your personal statement on your application however you're applying your CV if you can show that you meet the essential criteria of the job specification or the person specification then they're going to interview you so that is always my advice apply anyway show all of those transferable skills but what are those transferable skills okay let's talk about that because there's a lot that you're probably not thinking of observations you do observations all the time you've just had three years at university if you're a newly qualified nurse or come into the end of your degree observations is something you do inside out you can do it in your sleep it's what we do every day as a general practice nurse we have to do the height weight blood pressures for things like pill checks, medication reviews, NHS health checks for example any long-term condition so I'm doing the asthma now so I will do some observations to make sure that patient hasn't got a chest infection or sepsis if there's signs and symptoms are sort of showing that sort of thing so please make use of these sort of skills because they are your first line A to E assessment skills is the one put it all in there. Next up injections you're going around doing ward rounds with your mentor doing medications you're going to be seeing all these medications for heart failure inhalers you're helping your patients with their inhalers for example oxygen therapy you're going to be helping doing that if someone needs a nebulizer you're going to be doing that guess what as a general practice nurse this is what we do in clinics so put that in there guys sell yourself you've got this injections like I said is something that we do as well so we give b12 injections different hormone injections that go in the abdomen into the arm a variety of routes so the subcut into muscular injections that sort of thing so put that in there as well any if you can remove clips if you can remove stitches put that in there that's something I do almost weekly daily I do a lot of this as well so put it in there anything like wound management if you've redressed some wounds put that in there as well because that's what you're going to be doing as general practice nurse if you've been doing things like ecgs you're bound to have done or learn ecgs at university you're bound to have done it on placement put that in there because that's what we do as well another thing I don't think general practices know what we learn at uni anymore because I don't know about you guys but Birmingham City University I feel I was very well prepared for community slash primary care because it was all about long-term conditions so we always had a diabetic patient we always had asthma and COPD we had sepsis had cardiovascular disease and heart attacks and pulmonary embolisms these are the stuff that we're seeing in general practice put it in your application guys and this is what exactly what I said in my interview as well when I got the interview I said I feel like my university has prepared me for this because we have had long term conditions all the way through you know that background knowledge we have got you know we have learned all about asthma I've learned all about bronchodilation I've learned all about the kidneys and diabetes and the pancreas and kidney failure and all about the heart and what happens when someone has a heart problem and left-sided bench looker failure in betty in the mp4 exam if any of you remind mind you of that that is me that is general practice nursing guys this is the majority of the population sell yourself sell yourself sell yourself and sell yourself well everything you're doing can be transferred into general practice I'm getting really excited for you guys because I don't think I genuinely don't think general practice managers or the general practice partners the doctors themselves they don't know this stuff like they think that you're just going to be doing you know some catheters some IVs maybe I don't actually I don't know what they think I'm really sorry I should not say that erase that I didn't say it but I don't think they realize actually how much we learn on a degree now because the things we learn are built for general practice and the whole population as a whole like when you go into hospitals you're going to have long-term conditions but you're also going to have infection and sepsis and all these weird and wonderful things happening as well just need to take a minute come so guys you were built for general practice please put all of these skills into your application form show how good newly qualified nurses are we are up to date with the latest information the latest guidelines the latest of everything please I know people get really shy about selling themselves but if you don't sell yourself well enough in that application form they're going to snap someone else up so put everything in there when you're in your interview you want to big yourself up like this yeah imposter syndrome might settle in a little bit especially when you get the job and you're like oh I really saw myself in that interview and now they're going to expect so much of me but you know what it's okay guys because the support is there for you the training is there for you they need to train you up properly as a general practice nurse so don't worry about those little bits and you're going to get this with anywhere if you apply for a ward for example you're going to pick yourself up in that interview and then you're going to get the imposter syndrome setting in as well when you first start it happens to us all I'm absolutely sure if it hasn't happened to somebody then they must be absolutely brilliant they must be so good at what they do with years of experience I don't know but you know I had almost 12 years healthcare experience as a healthcare assistant before I became a nurse and even I was sort of like wow imposter is completely setting in I've got no idea they're going to find out how awful I am and I'm not this great nurse that I said I was that's normal so my biggest tip especially if you're new to qualified you're going into your first job these feelings are real but please get the support that you need to support you and just settle those nerves a little bit you are doing amazing you are doing the very best you can do and they will settle another thing that you can do is when you call a practice and they're looking for somebody and they think oh yeah go and do a visit do an informal visit ring them up and say listen I've applied for this job my applications in I want to come in and just do like a little hello and just meet everybody would that be okay this is what I did for my very first practice I worked at I went in and I saw everybody I sold myself on my informal visit so I was chatting to people like chatting to the managers about what I do and things like that I mean it's not necessary that you do that but I just think it really really looks good for you if you do that informal visit because it shows how keen you are but it also gets you in there a little bit more because the pressure's not on of the interview you're just doing like an informal chat just walking around so you're a bit more relaxed and that's when you can really sell yourself as well and lastly if you have sold yourself so well on that application form and you don't even get an interview you just get a rejection notice please ring them ring them and ask for feedback and ask what you can do better what you can prove on anyway applying for general practice uh I think that's all of my tips for you just literally just get applying sell yourself sell yourself well put all of them transferable skills in there get on to social media different job sites contact your local CCG and just go for it you've got this