A Nurse in General Practice

The recent change in the conditions of service for general practice has made auxiliary staff a comparatively inexpensive luxury. We were in course of converting a new surgery premise, and decided to base this round two consulting rooms, each with an examination couch for simple examinations, and one treatment/examination room for major examinations and other Procedures. This new building was designed to house a practice of two doctors and four and a half thousand patients. On moving into the new building ^e adopted a full appointment system and resolved to undertake ourselves as much in the way of diagnostic procedures and minor surgery as possible. To help us we recruited two receptionists and a nurse, the latter being a Mature person who had experience both as a ward sister and of working in a minor treatment unit. We allowed an initial working in period, and then recorded all work undertaken by her for six months. It was our intention to