Abstract
Dear Editor,
I recently read the article written by Ms Lydia Burke, Advanced Nurse Practitioner, in the November 2009 issue [InnovAiT 2(11) 687–688]. It was interesting to read and informative. Her final comment of ‘if nurse practitioners are offered doctor's roles, they should be paid the same as doctors’ made me think about these roles in Primary Care. After reviewing the Royal College of Nursing website, as highlighted by the article, I found the College's job description for an advanced nurse practitioner in general practice within its GP nursing career framework. Apart from the competences listed, it clearly states that an advanced nurse practitioner is responsible and accountable to the G P. Perhaps this level of responsibility taken on by the GP, which is a quality emphasized throughout medical training as a doctor, is the reason for some of the justifiable discrepancies in salaries between the roles?
Also on a similar note, our local out-of-hours (OOH) service is happy to employ on a locum basis both fully qualified GPs and qualified nurse practitioners, as long as the latter have some GP supervision but regardless of their experience. As a GP registrar, with a number of years of both hospital and GP experience (from both F2 and GPST1 posts), is it not unfair that final year GP registrars cannot be employed on a locum basis within these OOH services, in a similar manner to that of nurse practitioners?