Practice nurses: social and occupational characteristics.

Three hundred practice nurses in the West Midlands responded to a questionnaire survey about their social and occupational characteristics. The nurses were mainly married women with children and had had considerable hospital experience. They were largely satisfied with their job and felt that their own general practitioner colleagues were supportive, though doctors in general might not be so. Large variations in patterns of work were revealed and in some cases there was a considerable extension of the traditional nursing role. Almost two-thirds of practice nurses were undertaking breast and vaginal examinations, 70% were carrying out cervical smears and a number of nurses were diagnosing, investigating and managing common ailments. Nurses expressed a desire for further extension of their role to allow them to undertake broader aspects of patient care and to be less task-centred, but felt that they would require further training to do so. There was evidence of a need for better definition of the practice nurse's role and for more support from health authorities and the nurses' own professional body.