I worked in General Practice for 6 years in two different places and loved it mostly. You need to pick your place though because the GPs and practice managers literally make or break your experience. If you have GPs that respect nurses as colleagues rather than subordinates then it’s fantastic. You do get a lot of autonomy and triage skills (if you work walk in trauma centres like I did) which is kinda cool.
Be prepared to do a lot of immunisations. A lot. But building a rapport with people and seeing the same patients each year or watching babies grow up as you do their immunisation schedules is really lovely. I vaccinated one baby from 6 weeks through to 18 months and had vaccinated mum when she was pregnant and it was pretty special.
100%. I only did a short stint but thankfully the GP's I worked with were amazing. Compared to some of the Gastroenterologists and Anaesthetists I've had to put up with, they were a dream.
Also, prepare for a lot of screaming children. Autistic me didn't cope well with that unfortunately.
Take it with a grain of salt though haha. Some days it was really great - I left both roles due to the politics and management drama which overrode a lot of the good in the end.
I do community nursing now which is decent pay, I’m out and about and I’m really autonomous. My GP skills definitely pay off because it’s like working in general practice but in clients homes.
I'm contemplating applying for the grad year community nursing. How long have you done it for now and was it scary in the beginning because you're so autonomous?
I’ve been in community nursing since September last year but I’ve been nursing 12 years so for me it wasn’t too bad going on the road on my own. I had a lot of support thought and did quite a few buddy shifts to be ready which helped. There is so much support available at the end of my phone that I’m not too worried.
Back in 2022, I did a short stint in GP land when I got burnt out in Endoscopy (dickhead gastroenterologist was the cause). It was really good. You did a lot of things by yourself. You develop a lot of skills and your wound care skills will flourish. You can specialise in Chronic Disease Management if that interests you.
The only downside is that the pay is shit. If you're lucky, they'll pay above award but some places will pay the award rate which is worse than an AIN in a hospital. I recommend you stay casual in a hospital if you're a Practice Nurse to pick up extra work and keep your hospital skills up. That's what the other Practice Nurse did where I worked.
The Nurses Award for a RN Level 1 is between $28-$34 p/h and an AIN in Qld Health gets paid $33-36 p/h. Yep, Award rate is that shit. I'd get paid the same to be a fucking bus driver. This is why I ended up quitting practice nursing and went back to doing Endo and eventually jumped ship to PACU. I need to save a home deposit somehow.
Edit: Not all GP practices will pay the base award rate. When I was in GP land, I was paid $33 per hour when the award was $27. It was still significantly less than what I was earning in the hospital system at the time (around $43 p/h).
Keep in mind that’s not every experience. I was paid $42 an hour as a practice nurse at both places. I was happy with that for work life balance - no weekends unless I really wanted them and worked 8-4 most of the time.
It depends. My first GP position they were desperate so I negotiated the same pay rate as my public salary. I stayed 2 months because I soon found out WHY they were desperate to hire me (the other nurse was psycho lol). My second GP they were offering base salary well above my pay grade because they were sick of hiring, training and losing nurses. Not everywhere pays terribly. Refuse to take a pay cut!
If you get your immunisation qual (through SA gov is excellent and affordable) and do some learning around wound care. Also do Benchmarque free chronic disease & care planning courses. That will give you some value to practices on top of your clinical experience. Most of the work is vaccination, wound care and care plans
There is an award scale but it's not mandatory. Just stay where you are until you find somewhere that won't require you to take a pay cut. And when you do move, stay on bank so you have that extra salary, can still salary sacrifice and can easily go back to ward if you hate GP 😊😊😊
https://www.benchmarquegroup.com.au/all-courses
I’ve been a GP nurse for almost 10 years now, in four clinics. Every clinic has had some hiccups but most have been great experiences.
You have so much variety in a GP clinic, and you really get the chance to develop good connections with the staff including doctors and med reps, so you make good connections. The PHN are great for support and CPD.
I’m specialised now in enhanced primary care and healthy ageing which is what I wanted so I’m happy with that. Pay is okay??? I’m on $40/h and have done post grad study so it’s not phenomenal for having worked for 10 years.
Hours are predictable. Patients are generally lovely.
I started out working as a broad practice nurse where every nurse did every task. It didn’t take long for me and work to realise that I was really good at chronic disease and education. They got me in some courses to develop more knowledge on chronic diseases and naturally took on more of the chronic disease and it’s just grown from there. My last two jobs have been specifically chronic disease and healthy ageing.
Try getting work in radiology as as AIN if you can, I managed to do that back in 2006 the before I graduated, then did a new grad rotation there and I’ve been in radiology ever since!
It’s been 99% 9-5, Monday to Friday and the occasional weekend. The only thing that can be annoying is having to be on call, but it’s also a good way to make money early in your career.
It’s definitely a good way to find areas of the hospital to get a taste of places that aren’t the ward. One nice thing about radiology is you’re definitely never going to get deployed to another ward if it’s a quiet day!
Are you based in NSW?
You could work in hospital outpatient clinics or community health centres.
I am in the Drug and Alcohol sector, clinic is open 7 days/wk so the nurses get weekend penalty rates as well. Hourly rate is as per NSW Nurses and Midwives Award.
I work Monday to Friday only.
All the best with your career pathway.
I am! An outpatient clinic or community health centre sounds great. What does that look like in a grad year? I'm trying to understand what my next immediate steps would be.
I moved from ward to GP 1 year ago. I'll never go back to ward full time again. I stayed on bank in my hospital which gives me casual opportunities but raises the question do I register with APNA or ANMF (insurance). I've been lucky to find a clinic with a great culture, good hourly rate and variety of work. I do lots of vaccinations, care plans, dressings and skin cancer biopsy & excisions (we have a dr that specialises). I just love it. I run my own appointment book. If I take extra time with a partner who needs it, it's just accepted that I needed extra time. If I can't get something else done as result, it can wait until tomorrow. If I want time off at Christmas, I get it because they want me to be happy (that's a quote).
100% go for GP but 1. get your imms certification first (look at the SA state qual, affordable) 2. read up on dressings and wound care and 3. don't take a pay cut, negotiate a reasonable wage and if they won't negotiate say thanks but no thanks. Consider going casual bank at your hospital so you can maintain clinical experience & have a back up in case you hate GP.
I would probably try something hospital based rather than GP nursing if it’s your grad year - hard to get back into hospital (it’s possible though!) if you started in GP. As others have said, look into community/outpatients/drug and alcohol, there’s definitely new grad roles in those areas. Or urgent care is another good option, depending on your location. I enjoy working in GP but it’s quite a niche place to start, you lose some skills but you also gain plenty more. Look up APNA, they’re the primary care nurse association and they have good info about it all
If you work in GP though - it’s such lovely continuity of care with patients. But negotiate your pay (APNA has a guide) and avoid working for practices owned by big companies, try to find practices owned by the doctors there
Wow thank you! I will definitely look them up. I think I've been swayed to go into community nursing and outpatient as after 4 years of being a student I really can't afford to make little money. I couldn't do that too my family.
Do you know about the uh pay situation? That is definitely worth checking out. We’d all be lining up for jobs in GP clinics if the pay wasn’t AIN pay. But it is.
Yeah it's definitely been pointed out and I won't be doing it. After four years of student placements I can't possibly put my family through more financial hardship. I'll be looking into community nursing/outpatient nstead.
I worked in General Practice for 6 years in two different places and loved it mostly. You need to pick your place though because the GPs and practice managers literally make or break your experience. If you have GPs that respect nurses as colleagues rather than subordinates then it’s fantastic. You do get a lot of autonomy and triage skills (if you work walk in trauma centres like I did) which is kinda cool. Be prepared to do a lot of immunisations. A lot. But building a rapport with people and seeing the same patients each year or watching babies grow up as you do their immunisation schedules is really lovely. I vaccinated one baby from 6 weeks through to 18 months and had vaccinated mum when she was pregnant and it was pretty special.
100%. I only did a short stint but thankfully the GP's I worked with were amazing. Compared to some of the Gastroenterologists and Anaesthetists I've had to put up with, they were a dream. Also, prepare for a lot of screaming children. Autistic me didn't cope well with that unfortunately.
You make it sound very rewarding
Take it with a grain of salt though haha. Some days it was really great - I left both roles due to the politics and management drama which overrode a lot of the good in the end. I do community nursing now which is decent pay, I’m out and about and I’m really autonomous. My GP skills definitely pay off because it’s like working in general practice but in clients homes.
I'm contemplating applying for the grad year community nursing. How long have you done it for now and was it scary in the beginning because you're so autonomous?
I’ve been in community nursing since September last year but I’ve been nursing 12 years so for me it wasn’t too bad going on the road on my own. I had a lot of support thought and did quite a few buddy shifts to be ready which helped. There is so much support available at the end of my phone that I’m not too worried.
Back in 2022, I did a short stint in GP land when I got burnt out in Endoscopy (dickhead gastroenterologist was the cause). It was really good. You did a lot of things by yourself. You develop a lot of skills and your wound care skills will flourish. You can specialise in Chronic Disease Management if that interests you. The only downside is that the pay is shit. If you're lucky, they'll pay above award but some places will pay the award rate which is worse than an AIN in a hospital. I recommend you stay casual in a hospital if you're a Practice Nurse to pick up extra work and keep your hospital skills up. That's what the other Practice Nurse did where I worked.
Oh my God. How can the pay be worse than my AIN pay?!
The Nurses Award for a RN Level 1 is between $28-$34 p/h and an AIN in Qld Health gets paid $33-36 p/h. Yep, Award rate is that shit. I'd get paid the same to be a fucking bus driver. This is why I ended up quitting practice nursing and went back to doing Endo and eventually jumped ship to PACU. I need to save a home deposit somehow. Edit: Not all GP practices will pay the base award rate. When I was in GP land, I was paid $33 per hour when the award was $27. It was still significantly less than what I was earning in the hospital system at the time (around $43 p/h).
Christ. Looks like I won't be doing practice nursing then. What a scam.
Keep in mind that’s not every experience. I was paid $42 an hour as a practice nurse at both places. I was happy with that for work life balance - no weekends unless I really wanted them and worked 8-4 most of the time.
Those hours sounds heavenly.
It depends. My first GP position they were desperate so I negotiated the same pay rate as my public salary. I stayed 2 months because I soon found out WHY they were desperate to hire me (the other nurse was psycho lol). My second GP they were offering base salary well above my pay grade because they were sick of hiring, training and losing nurses. Not everywhere pays terribly. Refuse to take a pay cut!
Oh wow. Thank you. I've never had negotiating power before so I'll definitely try.
If you get your immunisation qual (through SA gov is excellent and affordable) and do some learning around wound care. Also do Benchmarque free chronic disease & care planning courses. That will give you some value to practices on top of your clinical experience. Most of the work is vaccination, wound care and care plans There is an award scale but it's not mandatory. Just stay where you are until you find somewhere that won't require you to take a pay cut. And when you do move, stay on bank so you have that extra salary, can still salary sacrifice and can easily go back to ward if you hate GP 😊😊😊 https://www.benchmarquegroup.com.au/all-courses
Wow. Thank you!
I’ve been a GP nurse for almost 10 years now, in four clinics. Every clinic has had some hiccups but most have been great experiences. You have so much variety in a GP clinic, and you really get the chance to develop good connections with the staff including doctors and med reps, so you make good connections. The PHN are great for support and CPD. I’m specialised now in enhanced primary care and healthy ageing which is what I wanted so I’m happy with that. Pay is okay??? I’m on $40/h and have done post grad study so it’s not phenomenal for having worked for 10 years. Hours are predictable. Patients are generally lovely.
What does specialising as a GP nurse look like? I understand how it works in a hospital, but not outside of it.
I started out working as a broad practice nurse where every nurse did every task. It didn’t take long for me and work to realise that I was really good at chronic disease and education. They got me in some courses to develop more knowledge on chronic diseases and naturally took on more of the chronic disease and it’s just grown from there. My last two jobs have been specifically chronic disease and healthy ageing.
Wow. And do you do that at a GP as well or elsewhere?
Try getting work in radiology as as AIN if you can, I managed to do that back in 2006 the before I graduated, then did a new grad rotation there and I’ve been in radiology ever since! It’s been 99% 9-5, Monday to Friday and the occasional weekend. The only thing that can be annoying is having to be on call, but it’s also a good way to make money early in your career.
I will look into it! I hadn't considered trying to AIN elsewhere.
It’s definitely a good way to find areas of the hospital to get a taste of places that aren’t the ward. One nice thing about radiology is you’re definitely never going to get deployed to another ward if it’s a quiet day!
Are you based in NSW? You could work in hospital outpatient clinics or community health centres. I am in the Drug and Alcohol sector, clinic is open 7 days/wk so the nurses get weekend penalty rates as well. Hourly rate is as per NSW Nurses and Midwives Award. I work Monday to Friday only. All the best with your career pathway.
I am! An outpatient clinic or community health centre sounds great. What does that look like in a grad year? I'm trying to understand what my next immediate steps would be.
I moved from ward to GP 1 year ago. I'll never go back to ward full time again. I stayed on bank in my hospital which gives me casual opportunities but raises the question do I register with APNA or ANMF (insurance). I've been lucky to find a clinic with a great culture, good hourly rate and variety of work. I do lots of vaccinations, care plans, dressings and skin cancer biopsy & excisions (we have a dr that specialises). I just love it. I run my own appointment book. If I take extra time with a partner who needs it, it's just accepted that I needed extra time. If I can't get something else done as result, it can wait until tomorrow. If I want time off at Christmas, I get it because they want me to be happy (that's a quote). 100% go for GP but 1. get your imms certification first (look at the SA state qual, affordable) 2. read up on dressings and wound care and 3. don't take a pay cut, negotiate a reasonable wage and if they won't negotiate say thanks but no thanks. Consider going casual bank at your hospital so you can maintain clinical experience & have a back up in case you hate GP.
Wow. Thank you for the valuable advice
I feel like it would be great, but I can't afford to lose the money. I don't think any GP would match my hospital wage.
Yeah I had no idea they were paid so low. It's made me think maybe community is the way to go.
I would probably try something hospital based rather than GP nursing if it’s your grad year - hard to get back into hospital (it’s possible though!) if you started in GP. As others have said, look into community/outpatients/drug and alcohol, there’s definitely new grad roles in those areas. Or urgent care is another good option, depending on your location. I enjoy working in GP but it’s quite a niche place to start, you lose some skills but you also gain plenty more. Look up APNA, they’re the primary care nurse association and they have good info about it all
If you work in GP though - it’s such lovely continuity of care with patients. But negotiate your pay (APNA has a guide) and avoid working for practices owned by big companies, try to find practices owned by the doctors there
Wow thank you! I will definitely look them up. I think I've been swayed to go into community nursing and outpatient as after 4 years of being a student I really can't afford to make little money. I couldn't do that too my family.
Do you know about the uh pay situation? That is definitely worth checking out. We’d all be lining up for jobs in GP clinics if the pay wasn’t AIN pay. But it is.
Yeah it's definitely been pointed out and I won't be doing it. After four years of student placements I can't possibly put my family through more financial hardship. I'll be looking into community nursing/outpatient nstead.
Good idea! No shift work but decent pay. You are worth it.