Clinical Roles

Practice Nurse

Practice nurses carry out a range of duties such as blood pressure checks, dressings, cervical smears, blood tests and injections.
They give advice about diet, smoking, travel immunisations, HRT, family planning and healthy living. They also run specialised clinics for chronic health disease, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and diabetes.

Health Care Assistant

Healthcare assistants support practice nurses with their daily work and carry out tasks such as phlebotomy (drawing blood), blood pressure measurements and new patient checks. They may act as a chaperone when a patient or doctor requests one.

Nursing Associate

The nursing associate is a clinical support role that bridges the gap between healthcare support workers and registered nurses. Created to deliver hands-on, person-centred care as part of nursing teams. The nursing associates’ role works in a variety of settings in health and social care and with people of all ages.  

First Contact Practitioner

A First Contact Practitioner (FCP), is a healthcare professional working at the GP surgery, and being the ‘first contact’ for a patient. This means that you do not need to see a GP in order to see the FCP, you can ask to see them directly without referral if you have a musculoskeletal (MSK) problem. The FCP can undertake specialist assessment and provide appropriate advice and establish a management plan that is appropriate for you. They have experience in assessing and managing bone, muscle, nerve or joint conditions. 

Physicians Associate

Physician associates are medically trained, generalist healthcare professionals, who work alongside doctors and provide medical care as an integral part of the multidisciplinary team. Physician associates are practitioners working with a dedicated medical supervisor, but are able to work autonomously with appropriate support. 

Advanced Clinical Practitioner

Advanced clinical practitioners come from a range of professional backgrounds such as nursing, pharmacy, paramedics and occupational therapy. They are healthcare professionals educated to Master’s level and have developed the skills and knowledge to allow them to take on expanded roles and scope of practice caring for patients.
ACPs are deployed across all healthcare settings and work at a level of advanced clinical practice that pulls together the four ACP pillars of clinical practice, leadership and management, education and research.

Paramedic Practitioner

Paramedic practitioners are trained to independently provide care that does not require the intervention of a doctor. They report directly back to the GP with the outcome of their visits and any updates on any treatment and medication that was given.

Clinical pharmacist

Clinical pharmacists are increasingly working as part of general practice teams. They are highly qualified experts in medicines and can help people in a range of ways. This includes carrying out structured medication reviews for patients with ongoing health problems and improving patient safety, outcomes and value through a person-centred approach.

Clinical pharmacists work as part of the general practice team to improve value and outcomes from medicines and consult with and treat patients directly. This includes providing extra help to manage long-term conditions, advice for those on multiple medicines and better access to health checks. The role is pivotal to improving the quality of care and ensuring patient safety.

Having clinical pharmacists in GP practices means that GPs can focus their skills where they are most needed, for example on diagnosing and treating patients with more complex conditions. This helps GPs to manage the demands on their time.

Health and Wellbeing coach

Health and wellbeing coaches support people to increase their ability to self-manage, motivation levels and commitment to change their lifestyle. They are experts in behaviour change and focus on improving health related outcomes by working with people to set personalised goals and change their behaviours. They work with people with physical and/or mental health conditions and those at risk of developing them.

Health and wellbeing coaches can be an effective intervention for people experiencing a range of long term conditions, including respiratory, cardiovascular (including type 2 diabetes and hypertension), and stress/low mood. They can also support people with weight management, diet and increasing activity levels.