It is important we are supporting the evolvement of Advance Practice within the community setting. Utilising Advanced Practice in the community can improve patient outcomes by increasing the capacity and capability of healthcare services.

Why is Advance Practice Important?

We all acknowledge how much increasing pressure all services are under. This includes financial challenges, changing community demographics and the changing face of the traditional roles within the community.

There is no doubt this happens every day, but we need to strive to address the ever-increasing demand to provide complex care to be delivered in the community setting. As well as responding to the government’s drive to deliver care closer to home.

We already acknowledge what a talented dedicated team already exists in the community setting. But we should ask the question:

Have community clinicians had equal access to the funding and support to develop advanced practice that secondary care has?

We need to allow the workforce time to work across the four pillars of advancing practice and facilitate the further development of this amazing group of clinicians.

Many people believe that Advanced Practice was developed in secondary care, however enhanced and advanced practice has been around in primary and community care much longer, but this is often not acknowledged.

Advanced practice has a very wide range of roles in Primary and Community services working and delivering this care in a range of settings across the community.

With the increasing demands on the NHS and continued financial restraints we constantly work within. It has never been more important to have educated and competent staff available to deliver high quality care at first point of contact.

How does Advanced Practice enhance patient care?

• It empowers the community teams to truly deliver holistic patient-centered care
• It improves access to specialist care
• It gives patients greater access to first class care and decreases waiting times
• It gives access to an ANP who takes a holistic approach to disease management

What’s in store for the Future?

How we regulate advanced practice is so important and a one size fits all approach is not necessarily the answer. The development of future roles and the acknowledgement of roles that already exist within community care is vitally important as well as we strive to sustain and improve advanced practice. Whilst continuing to support nurses’ participation in innovation to improve patient care and health outcomes. To continue to address of the ever-changing health care landscape.

At Hallam Medical, we are dedicated to supporting the evolving role of Advanced Practice. We take pride in partnering with clients nationwide to integrate Advanced Nurse Practitioners into their services, helping to achieve impactful outcomes.

I am pleased to see the great work both the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) and our partners The Queen’s Nursing Institute (QNI) collaborating to steer those conversations acknowledging the varied ways advanced practice knowledge and skills can be developed and acquired.