Content area
Full Text
The advanced nurse practitioner role should be re-examined to ensure it advances nursing skills rather than plugging gaps created by a shortage of doctors
ADVANCED NURSING PRACTICE: PART 1 OF 2
Keywords: Advanced nursing practice/ Nursing roles
Abstract Rolfe G (2014) Advanced nursing practice 1: understanding advanced nursing practice. Nursing Times; 110: 27, 20-23.
Articles published in Nursing Times in 2012 presented the role of the advanced nurse practitioner as an extension into the territory of junior doctors in response to pressures in healthcare resources. This article traces the history of advanced practice and suggests that a more appropriate model, post Francis report, should focus on fundamental skills and core nursing values. Rather than attempting to plug a gap created by a shortage of doctors by developing medical skills, nurses should value and promote advanced nursing practice, which is driven by patients' needs for the care that doctors are unable and unskilled to provide.
In this article...
* Why we must debate the concept of advanced nursing practice
* The history of advanced practice
* Controversy of the development of the advanced nursing role
In September 2012, the chief nursing officer for England introduced the "5CS for nursing": compassion, competence, communication, courage and commitment. Care was later included as a sixth. The CNO said:
"I believe these five areas define nursing as a profession and, by focusing on these values, we can achieve our aims of improving care for our patients and strengthening the profession" (Cummings, 2012).
Several months later, the Francis (2013) report called for a structure of fundamental standards and improved support for caring, compassionate and committed nursing. In light of these and subsequent events, it is time to reconsider the following:
* How we think about, and define, nursing;
* What we hold up as "best" or "advanced" practice;
* How we might set about encouraging and preparing aspiring advanced nurse practitioners (ANPs) as the future leaders of our profession.
Shortly before the CNO announced her "new vision for nursing", Nursing Times published a series of articles discussing the development, governance and future of advanced nursing (Barton et al, 2012a; 2012b; 2012c), in which the authors argued that the development of the ANP role is important in "a health service...