NURSING and business are not often areas which come together in someone’s professional life.

But a practice nurse from Bolton has proved she has a natural flair for working with patients as well as a keen eye for business.

Wendy Hough-Dickinson is a practice nurse and manager at the Deane Medical Centre.

She had been working as a practice nurse at the GP surgery for four years when she realised nurse practitioners, who deal with patients in the community, are quite often isolated from other nurses in their profession.

Mrs Hough-Dickinson decided to set up the first ever nurse practitioner forum for nurses to meet up, share ideas and complete practical training on areas such as immunisation, helping patients quit smoking and treating long-term conditions such as diabetes.

The 49-year-old says her idea was to create a place for nurses to meet and access more education in a relaxed atmosphere.

She said: “There was nothing for practices nurses at the time. Quite often they work out in the community. They are often autonomous and work very much in isolation.

“There was nothing in terms of career development and education, and I really wanted to improve that.

“As a practice nurse you have a really good foundation of knowledge across a huge area of primary care.

“The work has become much more diverse over the years and that means practice nurses are busier than ever and under pressure to deliver more services.

“Now we deal more intensively with conditions such as Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and the management of asthma or elderly people with dementia.

“By having a forum they have access to a network of other practice nurses meaning they have a lot more peer support in an ever changing NHS.

“Nursing is a brilliant but tough profession and having that support is vital. It took a lot of hard work to get it off the ground but I’m a doer and I wanted to make it happen.

“I wouldn’t say I saw it so much as businesses opportunity but I did see that the practice had the potential to expand and Dr Kumar was very supportive of the idea.”

The forum has gone from strength to strength since it was set up seven years ago and has 88 members from across the borough.

It now has a permanent base thanks to an extension at Deane Medical Centre, in Deane Road.

Qualified nurses can now do an accredited foundation course at Manchester Metropolitan University and Bolton University in practice nursing to prepare them for primary care – this is care provided in places such as GP surgeries.

Mrs Hough-Dickinson, who works with Public Health, NHS England and Bolton Clinical Commissioning Group, explained: “I wanted there to be more training for nurses and a chance for them to really develop their careers.

“That’s why the accreditation of the course is so important because then nurses can have that for their CV.

“All the training we do here is driven by the “six Cs”: Care, compassion, competence, communication, courage and commitment. I believe if we stick to that we can really improve services for patients.

“Practice nurses have a big role to play in preventing people from getting ill in the first place.

“If we can help empower patients and guide them into taking responsibility for their own health, it will in turn help reduce things like hospital admissions. It’s vital we help people improve their health and live a better lifestyle.”

Practice nurses and other community health workers, such as district nurses, have been picked out as essential to the future of the NHS.

Bolton CCG, the council, the Bolton NHS Foundation Trust and the Healthier Together review have highlighted plans to shift more and more resources out of hospital and into the community.

By caring for people — particularly the elderly — in their own homes or in care homes, the idea is that NHS will become more sustainable.

Yet all this change brings uncertainty about the future of the health service and how it will affect its workers and patients.

Mrs Hough-Dickinson admits the nurses she speaks to are nervous about their profession.

She added: “There is an anxiety about the increasing work load and the sheer amount of knowledge they are expected to have. It’s a huge responsibility. That’s why I feel this forum is so important and I’m very proud of it.

“All of the nurses are very involved here and it’s great to have created something where they can access the support they need.”

In October Mrs Hough-Dickinson was invited to Downing Street to meet David Cameron as part of a celebration of the nursing profession.