Resources and guidance for managers developing advanced nurse practice.
Within this section you will find information and signposting to support the development of advanced level practice from a mangers/service leads perspective.
Health and social care professionals working at advanced level are now becoming well established and are a growing part of the modern healthcare workforce. Their contribution is integral to many services and clinical areas ensuring the delivery of enhanced patient care. The roles undertaken by advanced practitioners vary from generalist roles to highly specialised. For more information on the development of advanced practice roles please go to the Introduction of Advanced Practice section for further information.
When considering the introduction of new advanced level roles there are a few elements that should be considered. These include service needs analysis, finance, training and support requirements.
We have highlighted below some key areas worth exploring to support the development of advanced practice.
Regulation of advanced practice
Currently, within nursing and midwifery advanced practice no additional regulation is required except for prescribing. The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) commissioned a review by the Nuffield Trust in 2023. This report highlights a range of potential approaches that the regulator may take. Consequently, the NMC approached the four UK governments to appoint advisors to progress a review of advanced practice. This work is currently underway. Key stakeholders such as the health professions regulators will be invited to be involved in this work as any proposal for additional regulation would require consideration across all UK healthcare regulators. Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) Helen Gough has provided an update on this review.
For pharmacy colleagues advanced accreditation from the core advanced practice curriculum requirements is awarded by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, but the regulation of advanced practice is via the General Pharmaceutical Council.
There is a register of all advanced practitioners in Scotland the Scottish Standard Workforce Information System (SWISS) where all advanced practitioners are registered following successful sign off.
Regulators such as the NMC, Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) and General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) have revalidation requirements, and these vary across professions.
For more information, please follow this link to the Facilitation of Learning Pillar.
Advanced practice education pathway
Education to support advanced practice is at masters level. This masters qualification must contain specific theoretical content. This includes anatomy and pathophysiology, pharmacology, and holistic clinical assessment. Detail about the core professional requirements can be found in the Transforming Roles papers 2, 7 and 8 for nurses and for pharmacists the Core Advanced Pharmacist Curriculum sets out the knowledge, skills and behaviours expected of advanced pharmacists.
For more information, please go to the Facilitation of Learning Pillar academic journey section.
There are a range of education programmes available, and more details can be found in the Becoming an Advanced Practitioner section.
Advanced Practice Strategies
To support the development of advanced practice some NHS Boards have developed strategies to enable a consistent approach. Please see examples of some below.