ADVANCE NURSE PRACTITIONERS
Stephanie McCulloch (f) – Advanced Nurse Practitioner / Lead Practice Nurse
BSc Nursing (RNLD), DFSRH, LoC SDI, MSc Advanced Practice (PgDip), V300 Non-Medical Prescribing, Asthma PgDip.
Advanced Nurse Practitioners (ANP’s) are specialised nurses who have a lot of experience working in primary care who have undergone higher professional training at Masters Level to become advanced practitioners. In practical terms this means they have had extensive university-led training in a range of subjects including physical examination, managing illnesses and injuries and pharmacology and prescribing.
All our ANP’s are nurse prescribers and are very comfortable managing a wide range of acute (i.e. recent onset) problems. They are independent and used to investigating, diagnosing and treating a wide range of common General Practice illnesses and injuries. We use ANP’s in our clinics so that our doctors have more time to deal with more complex, chronic (i.e. longstanding) problems.
We also use ANPs to increase access and healthcare options to our patients. Our reception team will ask you questions as to what your symptoms are to ensure they put you with the right clinician and often seeing an ANP will be the most appropriate and best option.
Our ANPs are excellent but they are not trained in some areas that GPs specialise in – such as serious mental illness, chronic or complex pain, complications of pregnancy and long term, incurable conditions.
Our ANPs all bring their own previous training, expertise and special areas of interest to their work. They also run some follow-up clinics for problems that don’t resolve after the first visit but also work closely with your GP and liaise frequently with them about your care.
PRACTICE NURSES
KirstyAnn Kilpatrick (f)
We also have a Practice Nurse who is qualified and registered nurse. They can help with health issues such as family planning, healthy living advice, blood pressure checks and dressings. The practice nurses run clinics for long-term health conditions such as asthma or diabetes, minor ailment clinics and carry out cervical smears.
CTAC NURSES (Community Treatment and Care)
Sophie Major-Jones (f) CTAC Staff Nurse
CTAC Staff Nurses deliver a wide range of interventions within the practice, such as complex wound management, ear irrigation, chronic disease monitoring, adult injections and minor injury treatments to help provide support to the medical practice. The CTAC staff nurse helps release time for GP’s and Practice Nurses / ANPs to focus on complex medical conditions and the management of chronic disease.
Natalie Graham (f) – CTAC Health Care Support Worker
Gail Anderson (f) – CTAC Health Care Support Worker
Healthcare support workers work under the guidance of a qualified healthcare professional who is usually a nurse. Our healthcare assistants see patients in surgery by appointment. Services offered include:
- Annual health checks for certain chronic diseases
- Lifestyle advice
- Phlebotomy (drawing blood)
- Blood pressure checks
- Simple dressings and suture removals
- ECG’s
- Additionally our HCSW’s assist the doctors and nurses in some examinations and procedures including more complex dressings.