Contracts, Negotiation, and the Hidden Side of Being a GPN

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Hi everyone, um this is Latoya and welcome back to General Repracticing and thank you very much for joining me today.
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Now this episode is gonna be a bit of a mix of personal and a bit of reflection about my career and advice that I would give to general practising versus Are we gonna talk a little bit about contracts?
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Yes, we all know that contracts are very exciting and if you're like me you'll skim through it without thinking twice and just ask the main points.
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But we're also gonna talk about negotiation, a skill most of us in healthcare don't even realize we should be using.
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So I would say stay with me and let's see how we can just look at contracts and what you expect from it because I'd like to think that I've learned the hard way over the years and I just wanted to share with you some of the things that I've discovered in the last six years when I transitioned from an NHS job to primary care.
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And on that note, thinking why did I become a general practice nurse in the first place?
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For me honestly, it was all about balance.
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I was at a point in my life where I had a daughter.
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Um I had just had my second child, which is my middle child, he's a boy.
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And I really wanted a kind of steadier rhythm to my my work life balance and especially weekends because the kids are home at weekend.
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And the main focus at that time was about my kids.
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I wasn't really thinking anything else, such as you know, bereavement.
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I wasn't thinking anything else about uh advancements of career and all those things.
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I was just looking for a balance.
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But as you know with life, we have lots of surprises.
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Um six years I've had a third child, and I've just recently lost my mum, and these moments have made me stop and ask myself what does my contract actually say about stuff like this?
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I've only in the last two weeks looked at my contract in relation to bereavement.
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When I saw my contract, I knew about the maternity pay, which was statutory, didn't love it, but I accepted it.
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But as I said, I didn't look at that bereavement leaf.
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And when you start in a new job, that's not something that is going to be on your radar.
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But for me, if you don't know much about me, I am a migrant.
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I grew up, I was born in Guyana, South America.
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Most of my families are in North and South America, and I'm in the UK.
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That's a big difference in distance really.
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And me having to navigate bereavement, thinking in relation to work, travel, time off, and just managing everything, you know, my family.
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And looking back, I didn't think I asked the questions I should have.
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And I'm sure I'm not the only person.
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To be honest, when I started I thought of the contract just as a paperwork, a formality.
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I was more interested in the pay really, you know, it wasn't great, but that's what most I was like, okay, am I gonna get a comparable pay to what I was getting in the NHS?
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But now that I think the contract or your contract that you're signing is the framework for your working life.
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It's not just about the salary, that is important.
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It's about those little perks such as maternity leave, bereavement leave, and even things like what's available for you from a mental well-being perspective, what what is the job offering you when when things are going well and even when things are not going well?
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Is there mileage when you're doing home visits?
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Are they contribution to your NMC fees?
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And even think about it, I'm currently right now I'm actually at university because I'm doing my SBQ and so I'm sitting here waiting for class to start.
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But thinking, what are you getting study leave within your contract?
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What does it say?
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You know, do you have to be with the practice for a certain amount of time?
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Is that even enforceable?
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So there's quite a lot of questions really.
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And if you think of it, a lot of contracts in GP surgery, they're old.
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You know, how long have they had these kind of contracts or these kind of stipulations in these contracts?
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Um, how many years were they make written?
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Have new staff, you know, challenge those things, um, those outdated things, and are they open to updating their contract really?
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And as nurses, I mean healthcare professionals, you know, we would be very surprised.
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I I I mean for me when I really understood about the the power I had, the power when it comes to negotiation and what I could ask for.
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Because as healthcare professionals, we don't see ourselves as negotiators, we see ourselves as carer, we see ourselves as getting on with that job, and we push back for patience, but are we pushing back for ourselves?
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And I'd like everyone to know that yes, we can.
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We can be our own advocates.
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Some employers are really generous and they've got stuff in their contracts such as paying your your NMC fee, um, and some of them have even mentioned about study leave.
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But are the things in your contract the things that matter to you and do you know that you've got that negotiation power?
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Negotiation doesn't mean being difficult, it can just make make sure that your role is sustainable.
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It is saying I want to give my best to this job, but I need the right support in order to do that.
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For me, it definitely took at least four years and some big life events for me to go and look back into my contract.
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Yes, when I had my third child, I looked at maternity leave.
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Now I'm look I had to look at my bereavement leave and I had to speak to my employers about that.
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But now I'm actually thinking, I am doing an SBQ, which is a specialist practitioner.
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My role is gonna change.
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I need to think about how can I start having that conversation with my employer and what is what is my contract going to look like?
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What is it gonna say?
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And you know when am I gonna sign that?
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And it's about r recognition really.
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But it's also about fairness.
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And the thing is, when you look at all the industry, they are doing neg negotiation is fairly routine for them.
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People negotiate salaries, bonuses, flexible working time all the time.
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But in healthcare we we do but not as often.
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We just kinda accept what's offer.
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But we need to remember our roles are evolving, expectations are shifting, and we need to think about speaking up and think are our contracts stuck in the past.
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For me, I just want you to know that negotiation doesn't have to be scary.
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You might feel your heart beating because it's not something, it's not a skill that you use a lot, and it doesn't have to be confrontational, it's just really communication.
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And it think of it as saying, here's what I bring to the table, here's what I need to do this job.
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Can we find a balance?
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It's a skill that we can bring and we can build on, and we can definitely learn.
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So, if you're considering a career in general practice or you're already a general practice nurse and haven't really looked at your contract in years, my advice would be don't just skim it, read every line, check that handbook and policy that's you know talk about maternity leave, bereavement, mileage and see is there anything else that you think should be there?
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And you can just ask employers, expect questions more than you think.
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Also, revisit your contract ever so often and remember you do have negotiation power.
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I know at the moment it's going to be the 8th of October.
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The Royal College of Nursing have a webinar that they're going to be doing about pay negotiation.
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I will put it down um in the resource section.
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If you could register if you listen to the podcast before that date, if not do look at the recording because we need to start building on these skills.
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Just as our career and life is growing as we all get older every day, really.
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And I'll say thank you very much for listening.
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And if this resonates with you, know that it's okay to have questions.
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And if you have any questions for us, we're quite happy to support you, myself, and Ashley.
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Might not be able to answer you right away, but we will definitely reach out to you.
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So until next time, take care of yourself and your patience.
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Bye.