Nursing associates 6 years on: A review of the literature.

Aim: This paper reviews the empirical research evidence relating to the nursing associate (NA) role since its implementation in England in 2017.

Background: The NA role arose from the findings of the Raising the Bar: Shape of Caring Review (Willis, 2015). The roles' aim is to bridge the gap between healthcare assistant and registered nurse as part of the nursing team, working with people of all ages in a variety of health and social care settings.

Supporting those who work and learn: A phenomenological research study.

Aim: With a shift in the United Kingdom's National Health Service to organisational learning and the local introduction of the Assistant Practitioner role to support the nursing workforce there was a broad need to understand the lived experiences of those who work and learn.

Method: Hermeneutic phenomenology was the chosen methodology. A purposive sample of eight trainee assistant practitioners, four matrons, seven mentors and the practice development nurse participated in conversational interviews at intermittent points in the journey.

Developing from within: ensuring the ambulatory emergency care workforce is fit for purpose.

Emergency healthcare provision is changing, and services need to respond to evolving health economies while providing safe, effective, patient-centred care. Ambulatory care is developing to meet these needs, but workforce planners need to ensure that staff are fit for purpose. To address this, one trust, in partnership with a local university, designed a bespoke in-house, work-based learning package on ambulatory care, which was delivered to registered nurses by practice experts.

Assistant practitioners: their role with children in secondary care.

Assistant practitioners (APs) can help to address a variety of locally or nationally recognised deficits in healthcare services to children and their families. However, as well as training and supervision, APs should have formal registration, and the role should be continuously appraised as it develops. The ways in which APs can support clinical nursing teams in delivering secondary health care to children, young people and their families is discussed.

Managers' experience of training the associate practitioner role.

Aim: This paper documents findings from a service evaluation of clinical managers' (n = 5) perceptions of the assistant practitioner (AP) training programme in one National Health Service (NHS) Trust in South East England, UK.

Background: The AP has been identified in England as a means for supporting registered nurses and enhancing patient care. The development of the AP role requires managers to consider how the role will be embedded and how they work with education providers.

The role of assistant practitioner for children and young people.

Research in the adult health sector shows that the assistant practitioner (AP) role, at band 4 (Skills for Health Expert Paper 2011), has been a useful addition to healthcare teams. However, the introduction of this role in the healthcare sector for children and young people has been slow. This article offers an overview of UK research on the role and suggests scenarios in which APs can be employed usefully in child healthcare settings.

Meeting changing service need through role development: a case study for Band 4 assistant practitioners.

Aim: To debate the evolution of the Assistant Practitioner (AP) role and its impact on workforce development and Higher Education provision.

Background: The Band 4, AP, has been identified in England as a means for supporting Registered Nurses and enhancing patient care. However, the education and training of Band 4 AP requires new ways of partnership working between Trusts and Higher Education Institutions (HIEs) to ensure that programmes reflect employers needs and that the AP is fit for purpose.

Shared education for professionals in child care.

A shared foundation year at the start of educational pathways for professionals and others who will be working with children has two main objectives: acquisition of knowledge and skills common to the different disciplines and development of flexible practitioners who understand the many roles in child care and can adapt as new roles emerge. A Foundation Degree in Children and Families developed at Canterbury Christ Church University was designed to provide a knowledge and skills base suitable for any worker in this field. Clear definition by regulatory bodies such as the Nursing and Midwifery Council of roles that exist and new roles that emerge are needed to help ensure clarity for progression through the available educational pathways.

An inter-professional approach to children's nursing education.

Nurses caring for children and young people do not practice in isolation but work as members of a multi-professional healthcare team. The Inter-professional programme delivered at Canterbury Christ Church University offers pathways in midwifery, adult nursing, child nursing, medical imaging, occupational therapy, social work and operating department practice. Benefits include the focus on children and their families from the outset, and learning to nurse using a multi-professional approach.

Living with disability: part 1.

This is the first of three articles which consider the holistic care required by children with a disability and their families. Although the articles mainly address care of children with disabilities in the acute hospital setting, the concepts and knowledge can be transferred to care in other settings. The articles aim to provide a summary of the main subject areas while prompting readers to revisit their own opinions and experiences.

Needle phobia--changing venepuncture practice in ambulatory care.

Needle phobia is a term used in practice to describe an anticipatory fear of needle insertion. A proportion of children display high levels of fear, pain and behavioural distress when exposed to, or anticipating, needle insertion. A difficult routine venepuncture in our ambulatory care unit led staff to review practice and develop a three-step approach to overcoming 'needle phobia': relaxation, control and graded exposure.