Primary care nursing, education for changing roles and boundaries.

Abstract

The primary care landscape continues to be redrawn, driven by the modernization agenda in general practice, public health policies, national care standards and the movement to involve the public and patients in service design and delivery.1,2 In this paper we discuss how primary care nursing is developing within the context of these changes and the implications for education. Our account does not pretend to be comprehensive; rather it draws on our own backgrounds of practice, teaching and research in gerontological, public and sexual health nursing in primary care, with illustrations from chronic disease management, public health and public/patient involvement. We recognise the importance of work that primary care nurses do in teams to deliver high-quality services and see this as a cross-cutting theme in changing roles. Although we raise some old questions, our answers are framed in terms of how a future primary care workforce can best be prepared and supported in order to deal with the clinical, interprofessional and organisational challenges of existing and future primary care models.