Advanced Clinical Practitioner
Advanced Clinical Practitioners (ACP) are experienced, registered healthcare professionals.
The role is currently offered to nurses, midwives, allied health professionals and pharmacists and allows an alternative clinical career progression as an alternative to traditional managerial positions in the NHS. Titles can vary depending on the professional registration, for example, Advanced Nurse Practitioner, Advanced Paramedic Practitioner or Advanced Pharmacist Practitioner.
The advanced practitioner role is designed to transform and modernise pathways of care. These healthcare professionals are educated to master’s level or equivalent, with the skills and knowledge to allow them to expand their scope of practice to better meet the needs of the population.
Advanced practitioners exercise autonomy and decision making in a context of complexity, uncertainty and varying levels of risk, holding accountability for decisions made.
You will find advanced practitioners employed across all health and care settings, including primary, community and secondary care and work across four pillars of advanced level practice in their role:
- Clinical Practice
- Leadership and Management
- Education
- Research
The roles undertaken by advanced practitioners are determined by the needs of the employer and how they require the level of practice to be within their organisation. This may fit with nationally understood roles, such as those within emergency departments, or very bespoke roles based upon the needs of a specific population, such as an advanced clinical practitioner dietitian running a complex enteral feeding (tube feeding) service for paediatric patients.
Once agreement has been made with the organisation to support the training, the trainee will complete an accredited master’s programme in advanced clinical practice over three to five years, alongside core and speciality capabilities for their speciality with a qualified supervisor. The university courses generally include (dependant on baseline registration) modules such as:
- Assessment and consultation skills
- Non-medical prescribing
- Research skills
- Quality improvement project
- Education theory
- Portfolio
If you would like to understand more about this career, please get in touch (opens in a new window).
