Background: Assistant practitioners have knowledge and skills beyond the level of traditional support workers, and work in many clinical settings. However, some assistant practitioners lack a clearly defined role and may be under-used due to issues around accountability and uncertainty about their purpose. This paper explores the assistant practitioner role from the perspectives of assistant practitioners and registered nurses.
Methods: This study aimed to explore the role of the assistant practitioner from the perspectives of assistant practitioners and registered nurses in two NHS hospital trusts in Oxfordshire, United Kingdom. Six qualitative focus groups were undertaken between February-March 2017. Ethical approval was obtained (FREC 2016/05) and written consent was provided by participants. Data was analysed thematically analysed using the Framework method.
Results: Nineteen participants (assistant practitioners, n = 12; registered nurses, n = 7) were recruited using convenience sampling. Emerging themes related to 'fluctuating roles and responsibilities of assistant practitioners', 'role differences between registered nurses and assistant practitioners', 'working relationships', 'supervision' and 'redefining nursing pathways'. The Results and Discussion sections highlight a lack of role clarity and blurring of boundaries between the roles of assistant practitioners and registered nurses, with many tasks undertaken by both. This lack of ownership of 'nurse-specific' roles by registered nurses was evident and clear differences were only encountered with regard to accountability. The development of the Nursing Associate role provides managers with the opportunity to redefine staff banding hierarchies to ensure that clinical staff are aware of their role capabilities and limitations and are practicing safely, whilst promoting career development and progression pathways.
Conclusion: Addressing issues around role clarity can benefit professional development, satisfaction, role identity and ownership for registered nurses and assistant practitioners, by recognising the individual and collective value they bring to the clinical team. The findings can help inform the development of the Nursing Associate role.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6131889 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12913-018-3506-y | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
A Hospital Resource for Nurses Navigating Doctoral Education and Beyond.
J Nurs Adm
January 2025
Author Affiliations: Nursing Research Consultant (Dr Feetham), Nurse Scientist, and Associate Professor, George Washington University School of Medicine, Washington, DC (Dr Kelly), Nursing Research and Development Programs Manager (Dr Engh), Department Nursing Science, Professional Practice Quality, Director Healthcare Consulting CBRE Washington DC (Dr Frame): Chief Nursing Informatics and Education Officer (Dr King), Nurse Practitioner, Psychiatry Consult Liaison Service (Dr Ojini), Division of Emergency Medicine and Trauma Nursing Director (Dr Schultz), Sickle Cell Disease Lead Translation Research Advanced Practice Nurse and Director of the Sickle Cell Disease Transition Clinic, Associate Professor George Washington University (Dr Barbara Speller-Brown), and Simulation Program Manager (Dr Walsh), Children's National Hospital, Washington, DC; and Assistant Professor (Dr Giordano), Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia.
Advancing nursing practice to improve care and system outcomes requires doctoral-prepared nurses to conduct programs of research and translate science to practice. The authors describe a Doctoral support group (DSG) at one hospital designed to support nurses considering and navigating doctoral education while continuing as hospital employees. Strategies from 18 years' experience are provided for others to develop and sustain a DSG as part of an environment to support and retain nurses with doctoral degrees.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA Study Exploring Local Nurse Retention Data.
J Nurs Adm
January 2025
Author Affiliations: Research Nurse Coordinator (Staup), Neonatal Nurse Practitioner (Dr Jasin), Infection Control Nurse (Robinson), and Clinical Nurse Educator (Hembree), Research and Evidence-Based Council, Dayton Children's Hospital; and Biostatistician (Dr Stolfi), Assistant Professor (Dr Jasin), and Associate Professor Nursing (Dr Bowling), Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio.
Background: Currently in the United States, the demand for RNs is stronger than is being supplied. This site-specific pediatric RN turnover rate was estimated at 15% per year, which is above the national average.
Methods: A descriptive correlational study was conducted using the Revised Casey-Fink Nurse Retention Survey tool.
Optimising data sharing whilst protecting participant privacy: a data note describing processed data from a qualitative study of healthcare professionals' experiences of caring for women with false positive screening test results.
Health Psychol Behav Med
January 2025
Manchester Centre for Health Psychology, Division of Psychology and Mental Health, School of Health Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK.
Introduction: The present article describes the processed data generated in a qualitative interview study and template analysis. Many women find the experience of being recalled and receiving a false-positive breast screening test result to be distressing. The interview study aimed to understand breast screening healthcare professionals' (HCPs) experiences of providing care during the recall process and when receiving false-positive screening test results, including their communication with women around false-positive screening test results.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFExploration of interprofessional collaboration for the diagnosis of infections and antibiotic prescription in nursing homes using multiple case study observational research.
JAC Antimicrob Resist
February 2025
Inserm, INSPIIRE, Université de Lorraine, Nancy F-54000, France.
Background: Antibiotic resistance in nursing homes (NHs) is inconsistently tackled by antimicrobial stewardship programmes. The literature on individual determinants of antibiotic prescriptions (APs) in NHs is extensive. However, less is known about the structural determinants of AP in NHs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHealthcare practitioners as accomplices: a qualitative study of gender affirmation in a context of ambiguous regulation in Indonesia.
BMC Med Ethics
January 2025
The Kirby Institute, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
Background: The World Professional Association for Transgender Health guidelines Standards of Care 8 draw on ethical arguments based on individual autonomy, to argue that healthcare and other professionals should be advocates for trans people. Such guidelines presume the presence of medical services for trans people and a degree of consensus on medical ethics. Very little is known, however, about the ethical challenges associated with both providing and accessing trans healthcare, including gender affirmation, in the Global South.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWant AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!