Beginning to reinvigorate the workforce

Benson, Lawrence; Venning, P.; Young, Ruth; Walshe, Kieran; Mullen, Christopher

doi:10.12968/bjhc.2004.10.9.18743

Cited by 3 publications

(4 citation statements)

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“…It was envisaged that unlike HCAs, who may or may not be prepared through the NVQ educational route, APs would undertake a Foundation Degree. Hence, the policy vision was that APs would be able to 'do more' than the 'traditional' HCA by taking on some of the registered practitioners' duties, freeing up the latter to achieve better patient outcomes [11,13].…”

Section: Assistant Practitioners: Scope Of Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

“…APs have largely been created around the needs of a particular service and as such their scope of practice includes knowledge, skills and responsibilities drawn from a variety of professional domains [13]. In particular, APs are supporting the work of both nursing and therapy services, creating a more generic healthcare worker in many organisations [11]. In this way APs are seen as plugging the human resource gap by taking a more direct role in the assessment and delivery of care (Box 3 ).…”

Section: Box 3: Expected Responsibilities Of Assistant Practitioners mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These changes have included skill mix changes, delegation of roles, job widening and substitution, job deepening and enhancement, and the implementation of new roles, including APs [4,11]. The need to re-examine workforce boundaries has been driven by a need to urgently address local workforce issues, review temporary workforce costs and attract more staff into the service of the right grade and calibre [11]. In addition, the AP role also provides non-registered employees with an opportunity to develop their career.…”

Section: Fluid Work Boundariesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Assistant or substitute: Exploring the fit between national policy vision and local practice realities of assistant practitioner job descriptions

Wakefield¹,

Spilsbury²,

Atkin³

et al. 2009

Health Policy

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Section: Assistant Practitioners: Scope Of Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Box 3: Expected Responsibilities Of Assistant Practitioners mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Fluid Work Boundariesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Assistant or substitute: Exploring the fit between national policy vision and local practice realities of assistant practitioner job descriptions

Wakefield¹,

Spilsbury²,

Atkin³

et al. 2009

Health Policy

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“…Changes to the roles of health care professionals have created specific opportunities for reviewing developments in assistant roles (Benson et al . ). Assistants are a vital part of the primary and community care workforce and policies over the past decade have supported their growth in numbers and their increasing scope of practice (Saks & Allsop ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

A changing landscape: mapping provider organisations for community nursing services in England

Spilsbury

Pender²

2013

J Nurs Manag

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Support matters: a mixed methods scoping study on the use of assistant staff in the delivery of community nursing services in England

Spilsbury

Pender²,

Bloor

et al. 2013

Health Services and Delivery Research

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BackgroundCommunity nursing (and health) services are faced with the growing challenge of caring for increasingly dependent patients with chronic conditions and complex care needs. Over the past decade there have been changes in the composition of the community nursing workforce with increasing numbers of assistants yet there is a lack of published literature on the roles, contribution and impacts of community nursing assistants to the delivery of care and services.DesignWe adopted a three-stage approach for the scoping study using mixed quantitative and qualitative methods. First, we established contact with senior managers in provider organisations where we had research governance approval (n = 76; 75% of total provider organisations) to determine whether or not (a) they employ assistants within community nursing teams and (b) they would be interested in participating in the study. Second, we carried out a short telephone interview with all senior managers who indicated a willingness to participate (census approach). We also analysed secondary data (using the NHS iView data source, from the Electronic Staff Record Data Warehouse) to scope the national use of community nursing assistant roles. Finally, we conducted telephone interviews with a purposive sample of managers from 10 organisations that participated in stage two to gain an in-depth understanding of assistant roles in community nursing teamsSettingCommunity nursing provider organisations in England, UK.ParticipantsThirty-seven senior managers were interviewed for stage two (49% of all contacted). Thirty managers (20 service-level managers and 10 senior managers) were interviewed for stage three.ResultsAssistants promote flexibility in the community nursing workforce so as to respond to the changing demands on these services. However, the lack of consensus in defining the role of community nursing assistants has created inconsistency in the national deployment and development of these roles. These roles have tended to develop ad hoc, creating variations in numbers of assistants, the roles that they play and preparation for practice across different provider organisations and nursing teams. There is general enthusiasm among managers about the contribution of assistants. Their employment is regarded as fundamental to the ability of community nursing teams to deliver acceptable and appropriate services. However, the role may not always support career progression and development for those assistants who require this. The maturity and life experience of assistants is greatly valued in the nursing team to support care delivery and to offer stability and support to other members of the nursing team. Line management, responsibility and accountability in managing the work of assistants were highlighted as important for managing risk associated with an unregulated role. These have to be balanced with promoting flexibility in use and innovation.ConclusionsOur scoping study highlights the opportunities and challenges associated with the use of assistants to deliver care by the community nursing team. Further attention at national and local levels is required to support and mediate the development of these roles in the future so as to promote the delivery of quality, safe and acceptable care. As provider organisations plan for delivering an ambitious community services agenda in the future, the role of the assistant is likely to have increasing importance.FundingThe National Institute for Health Research Health Services and Delivery Research programme.

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Beginning to reinvigorate the workforce

Abstract: This article examines the ‘Delivering the Workforce’ project in Greater Manchester, which aims to provide over 2000 assistant practitioners in a major attempt to contribute to the redesign of the health and social care workforce. target groups it is intended to benefit.

Cited by 3 publications

References 0 publications

Assistant or substitute: Exploring the fit between national policy vision and local practice realities of assistant practitioner job descriptions

Assistant or substitute: Exploring the fit between national policy vision and local practice realities of assistant practitioner job descriptions

A changing landscape: mapping provider organisations for community nursing services in England

Support matters: a mixed methods scoping study on the use of assistant staff in the delivery of community nursing services in England

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