Advanced Nurse Practitioner
Advanced Clinical Practice (ACP) career pathways in Mental Health nursing are not always clearly defined leading to considerable variation across organisations. A further challenge includes committing time to work across the 4 pillars of advanced practice.
Following a large scoping exercise at Mersey Care ACP career pathways were enhanced and strengthened for mental health nurses. Two examples of expanding the ACP role in line with the 4 pillars of advanced practice were included in the presentation at the HEE round table event .
The first is the outcome of a project working within a collaborative model across GP practices. The aim of the project was to reduce referral’s from GP’s to give more timely access for primary care services to psychiatrists when they needed them. The second is an evaluation of the Advanced Clinical Practitioner role with a generic community mental health team which provided clarity on the role and supported developments for future workforce planning. The outcomes of the evaluation evidenced that senior non-medical career opportunities allow for diversification of the workforce within a transformed MDT model and supported opportunities to consider workforce alternatives to address medical vacancies whilst supporting current Consultant Psychiatrists.
Claire Holder
Zoe Prince