Advanced clinical practitioners in the NHS and General Practice
What is advanced clinical practice?
In line with the NHS long term plan Queens Road Partnership welcomes Advanced Clinical Practitioners to our workforce
Advanced clinical practitioners come from a range of professional backgrounds such as nursing, pharmacy, paramedics and occupational therapy. They are healthcare professionals educated to Master’s level and have developed the skills and knowledge to allow them to take on expanded roles and scope of practice caring for patients.
What is advanced clinical practice?
Advanced clinical practice (ACP) is a defined level of practice within clinical professions such as nursing, pharmacy, paramedics and occupational therapy. This level of practice is designed to transform and modernise pathways of care, enabling the safe and effective sharing of skills across traditional professional boundaries.
Advanced clinical practitioners (ACPs) are healthcare professionals, educated to Master’s level or equivalent, with the skills and knowledge to allow them to expand their scope of practice to better meet the needs of the people they care for. ACPs are deployed across all healthcare settings and work at a level of advanced clinical practice that pulls together the four ACP pillars of clinical practice, leadership and management, education and research.
What Role Does An Advanced Clinical Practitioner Play?
Advanced clinical practitioners eventually work at the level of a middle grade doctor. They support existing and clinical care to enhance the capacity and capability within multi-professional teams. Their primary roles include improving clinical continuity, providing more patient-focused care. They also helps provide safe, accessible and high-quality patient care.
As stated in the formal definition by Health Education England: “Advanced clinical practice embodies the ability to manage clinical care in partnership with individuals, families and carers. It includes the analysis and synthesis of complex problems across a range of settings, enabling innovative solutions to enhance people’s experience and improve outcomes.”
ACPs must develop skills across patient pathways in a range of clinical areas on top of their core clinical specialty. They will have expertise in a specific area but need clinical examination skills and know various diagnostics and treatment options. This will enable them to identify and act upon issues across a range of clinical systems.
Why is advanced clinical practice important?
The NHS long term plan highlights how advanced clinical practice is central to helping transform service delivery and better meet local health needs by providing enhanced capacity, capability, productivity and efficiency within multi-professional teams.
Developing advanced clinical practice roles should be considered a key component of contemporary workforce planning, as described in the NHS Long Term Plan.