A Policy on the Development of Graduate to Advanced Nursing and Midwifery Practice

Policy on the Development of Graduate to Advanced Nursing and Midwifery Practice

International evidence identifies the beneficial impact that Advanced Nurse Practitioners have on the health services due to their specialist knowledge, wide scope of qualifications and the ability to provide a complete episode of care.

This policy addresses the way we utilise our skilled and knowledgeable nursing and midwifery workforce by changing the way we educate and train nurses and midwives from graduate to advanced level. The way we recognise skills and education through a process of credentialing and annotation, the creation of a critical mass of advanced practitioners to impact high areas of need and a process to measure the impact and effectiveness of this model.

In 2016, 0.2% of the nursing and midwifery population were registered at advanced level. When developing the policy, the Office of the Chief Nursing Officer in the Department of Health tested the model having established a steering committee of key stakeholders to oversee the development of selected demonstrator sites.

Over two years 164 additional ANP posts were developed. These posts are in the areas of Chronic Diseases (Respiratory and Rheumatology), Unscheduled Care (Emergency and Acute Medicine) and Older Persons Care. These posts were based in both acute and community settings. Measuring the impact of Advanced Practice was an essential part of this policy development and therefore a minimum dataset was developed. This is the first national standardised data tool to help measure and demonstrate the impact of the direct and indirect Advanced Practice Nursing and Midwifery interventions.