New to General Practice Nursing: Your First 30 Days
Start well in Australian general practice: who decides what, the treatment room and its emergencies, the safety systems you join on day one, how Medicare touches your work, notes and handover a GP can act on, and a plan for your first month.
Who this is for
Registered and enrolled nurses who are clinically competent but new to Australian general practice, whether from a hospital ward, aged care or overseas. Practice managers and nurse leads can use lesson 6 to plan a new nurse’s orientation.
The people and practice in this course are made up.
Learning time: allow about 50 minutes, including practice and assessment. Take the time you need.
What you will practise
- Testing a request against your scope of practice and saying early, in words a busy GP can act on, that you have not been trained or observed.
- Knowing who your named registered nurse is if you are an enrolled nurse.
- Responding to an unwell walk-in with the practice’s emergency procedure.
- Acting in the first minute when the vaccine fridge is out of range, after a needlestick, or when a patient asks about a result nobody has reviewed.
- Telling assisting with a GP’s Medicare item from a nurse item delivered on a GP’s behalf, and recording who did what.
- Writing a note another clinician can continue from, and handing over to a GP with ISBAR until someone has accepted it.
- Working through a 30-day orientation checklist and keeping the obligations that are yours alone: registration, CPD, insurance and recency.
Six practical lessons
- From the ward to the practice: who decides what
- The treatment room: walk-ins, procedures and emergencies
- Four safety systems you inherit on day one
- Medicare in five minutes: you contribute, the GP claims
- Notes and handover a GP can act on
- Your first 30 days: shown, practised, observed
Learn by making decisions
Each lesson opens with a situation at Rivergum General Practice and asks you to decide before it explains, and from lesson 2 starts with a one-line recall of the last lesson. You get the words to say, what to record and who to tell, and the course ends with a mixed practice across all six lessons. A printable desk card holds your own 30-day tracker and the identity, consent, emergency, fridge, exposure and handover essentials.
Where to go next
This is the starting point for the nursing courses. It names each system and points you on rather than teaching it in full:
- Vaccine Storage, Cold Chain and Clinic Readiness
- Infection Prevention, Clinical Waste and Reprocessing Readiness
- Results, Recalls and Referrals: From Task Creation to Confirmed Follow-up
- Nurse Follow-up in General Practice: MBS 10997 and 10987
- GPCCMP in Practice: Care Plans, MyMedicare and Allied Health Coordination
- The 45–49 Health Assessment: A Practical Course for General Practice Nurses
- 75+ Health Assessment: A Practical Course for Nurses
- Doing a Great 715: A Practical Course for General Practice Nurses
Assessment and completion
Complete all six lessons, pass the seven-question knowledge assessment (80%) and the five-question safety assessment (100%). There is no time limit; you can read the explanations and retry. Practice tasks are not marked. You receive a certificate of completion.
This is professional development, not accredited CPD, and is not endorsed by the RACGP or any other body. It gives no clinical authority and does not assess your competence: only a qualified person at your practice can observe you and sign you off for a task. Follow your practice’s agreed procedures within the law, your registration and professional standards; raise any conflict before starting.
References to the RACGP Standards are to the 5th edition, which accreditation still uses as at October 2026.
Use Mark Complete when you finish a lesson, then return through My Courses.
Official sources
- NMBA: Registered nurse standards for practice
- NMBA: Enrolled nurse standards for practice
- NMBA: understanding CPD
- NMBA: professional indemnity insurance fact sheet
- NMBA: recency of practice fact sheet
- RACGP Standards (5th edition) C3.2: induction
- RACGP Standards (5th edition) C5.3: clinical handover
- ACSQHC: RACGP Standards 6th edition and accreditation
- National Vaccine Storage Guidelines: Strive for 5 (4th edition)
- RACGP infection prevention and control guidelines: managing an exposure incident
- Australian Immunisation Handbook: preparing for vaccination
- MBS MN.12.6: services on behalf of a medical practitioner
- Department of Health, Disability and Ageing: using the Australian Immunisation Register
- ACSQHC: ISBAR toolkit
- APNA: Transition to Practice Program
DESK CARD · New to General Practice Nursing: Your First 30 Days · GP Staff Academy · as at October 2026
My first 30 days
A course date goes in the first column, never the last.
| Task | Shown (by, date) | Practised (date) | Observed and signed (by, date) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raising the code from each room I use | |||
| Trolley, oxygen, defibrillator, anaphylaxis kit | |||
| Fridge reading, chart, out-of-range steps | |||
| Spill kit, sharps, exposure procedure | |||
| Software: note, task, vaccine record | |||
| Medicines and vaccines I may give, on whose order | |||
| Patient, record, procedure and consent checks | |||
| A GP handover, accepted and recorded | |||
| Machine or procedure: ____________ | |||
| Machine or procedure: ____________ |
Not yet signed? “I haven't done this here, and nobody has watched me. I can get the patient ready for you, or book them with a nurse who does it. Which would you like?”
Before a planned procedure
Ask for three approved identifiers; match patient, record and procedure. Check the order and relevant allergies/screening. Explain, check understanding and obtain valid consent; record it. A mismatch or unclear authority means pause and resolve it. For every vaccine, obtain and record today’s explicit verbal consent.
Emergency
Go now; check safety, response and breathing. Call the code and 000; have the trolley and AED brought. Unresponsive and not breathing normally: start the current CPR/AED pathway from your training without waiting for a GP. Follow 000 instructions; use the backup call route if needed. Stay with the patient. Handover: who, what you found, since when, what you did.
Vaccine fridge
Keep at +2 °C to +8 °C, aiming for +5 °C; record minimum, maximum and current twice a day. Out of range: leave the vaccines in the vaccine fridge, labelled “Do not use / Do not discard”, and ring the coordinator, then the backup, then the practice manager. Never use a domestic fridge. Discard nothing until the health department advises. Record it on the chart.
Sharps and exposure
Whoever uses a sharp puts it straight into the container. Never pass one by hand. Needlestick or splash: wash the wound or rinse the eye, then report it now, in person, to: ____________. “I've had a needlestick and washed it. Can you see me now?”
Handover: ISBAR
Introduction (you, your role, the patient) · Situation (what is happening now) · Background (what led up to it) · Assessment (your concern, not a diagnosis) · Recommendation (“Can you see her before she leaves?”). A new or worse finding goes to a GP before the patient leaves. Sent is not accepted; record who accepted, when, what they decided.
Mine alone
Check your registration expiry and conditions; annual general-registration renewal is normally 31 May. CPD: usual full-year RN/EN minimum 20 relevant hours; check first-year pro-rata and extra registration/endorsement requirements. Routine repeat CPR/fire training is not automatically CPD. Keep evidence at least five years. Confirm indemnity cover in writing and meet current NMBA recency requirements. Medicare: the GP claims these items; your note says who did what.
Nurse lead: ____________ · Named RN (enrolled nurses): ____________ · Fridge coordinator / backup: ____________ · Practice manager: ____________
Follow local procedures within the law, your registration and professional standards. Raise any conflict before starting.