What is a Rural Advanced Practice Supervisor?
A Rural Workplace/Practice Supervisor is an experienced registered Rural Practitioner who is prepared for the rural advanced practice supervision role.
The Rural Advanced Practice Supervisor
The Multidisciplinary Rural Advanced Practice Supervisor will be/ have:
For Advanced Clinical Practitioners (ACP)
- Clinically active with current professional registration
- 5 years of clinical experience as an ACP
- 3 years clinical experience working in a remote and/or rural context
- Master’s level education in Advanced Practice (min PG Dip)
- Hold an independent prescriber qualification and have an active prescriber status on the register of their relevant professional body.
For doctors
- Clinically active with current General Medical Council registration and license to practise.
- 5 years post-graduate clinical experience.
- 3 years clinical experience working in a remote and/or rural context.
It is unrealistic to propose that a single Rural Advanced Practice Supervisor, however skilful, will be equipped to support the breadth of development across the four pillars of rural advanced practice, (clinical, research, education, and leadership), while also supporting the trainee with competing rural workplace demands.
For this reason, in common with other areas of workplace professions, training such as medicine and healthcare science, an integrated approach to workplace supervision for rural advanced practice is necessary. In the workplace a trainee rural advanced practitioner can expect to have a Rural Advanced Practice Supervisor. This supervisor will be supported by two NES employed ‘Senior Education Leads’ and several associate workplace supervisors who support specified aspects of the trainee's development related to the four pillars of rural advanced practice.
The Multidisciplinary Rural Advanced Practice Supervisor will normally be required to:
- Summarise their previous Rural Practice Supervision training and experience,
- Undertake a self-assessment rating against the RAP Capabilities in Practice (CiPs),
- Provide referees who can attest to their current roles and scope of practice,
- Have a letter of collaboration from their manager/professional lead who will be able to confirm engagement with appraisal and revalidation,
- Where appropriate undertake a structured interview with members of their Rural Board in order to seek clarification on scope of rural practice supervision.
This Rural Workplace Advanced Practice Supervision Hub has been developed to ensure Rural Advanced Practice Supervisors have access to development opportunities and ongoing support to standardise, ensure, and improve the rural practice supervision of trainees undertaking the Multidisciplinary Rural Advanced Practitioner MSc programme.
Achieving Excellence in Rural Advanced Practice Supervision
Rural advanced practice supervision supports staff to practise in accordance with NHS Quality Objectives. Rural advanced practice supervision promotes a culture of high-quality professional practice that is safe, effective, legal, and adheres to the NHS Boards agreed policies, procedures, and priorities and promotes understanding about respective roles, duties, and responsibilities. It provides the developing trainees with appropriate support, guidance and advice and assists the trainee to make professional judgements and decisions, and where appropriate, endorses actions that have been taken by the trainee.
