No hospital is an island: Acute Care collaborations demonstrate new ways of working

A new report on lessons learnt from the acute care collaborations includes case studies highlighting how vanguards are finding new ways to:

· Standardise clinical practice, pooling expertise, sharing vital patient information and analysing patient care across hospitals.

· Make better use of clinical support services, such as imaging and pathology.

· More creatively and flexibly use the skills of their healthcare professionals, reducing reliance on agency staff.

· Build innovative external partnerships with, for example, the pharmaceutical industry.

· Support more integrated health systems that champion person-centred care.

· Consolidate corporate support functions to generate efficiencies.

The report is available in full here https://www.england.nhs.uk/publication/no-hospital-is-an-island-learning-from-the-acute-care-collaboratives/ 

Funding to support employers with the nursing associate role

Health Education England's (HEE) has announced that it will be supporting the implementation of 5000 nursing associate places with additional funding support for employers.

£15,000 has been agreed to cover the cost of providing the programme and to support practice placement preparation and supervision.

HEE will also be releasing a support package of £3200 to support mentorship and supervision, quality assurance and developing provider readiness for the role.

AoMRC Medical Associate Professionals consultation

The AoMRC's response to the Department of Health’s consultation on the regulation of Medical Associate Professionals (MAPs).

New case study on how to run a successful recruitment fair

NHS Employers has published a new case study focusing on how Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust successfully ran a recruitment day to increase its nursing and health care assistant workforce.

The study looks at how the trust targeted nurses wanting to return to practice in the NHS, as well as more traditional groups such as nurses in training. The organisation reached out to experienced nurses working outside of the NHS through a variety of communications channels to secure over 160 attendees at their event. They interviewed 110 people leading to 95 job offers to both registered nurses and healthcare assistants.

Consultation on nursing associate regulation now open

The Department of Health has launched a new consultation seeking views of employers about how nursing associates should be regulated.

Responses will feed in to changes of the Nursing and Midwifery Order 2001, which sets out the Nursing and Midwifery Council’s (NMC) powers and duties. The order needs to be amended for the NMC to effectively regulate the nursing associate profession.

The consultation, launched on Monday 16 October, is open until 26 December 2017. 

Advancing Healthcare Awards 2018

Entries are now open for the Advancing Healthcare Awards 2018.

In its 12th year the awards are open to allied health professionals, healthcare scientists and those who work alongside them in support roles, and aim to recognise and reward those projects and professionals that make a real difference to patients’ lives.

Nominations are welcomed from individuals, teams and patients, service users and carers. With four new awards, there are now 14 categories in total, with the overall winner announced at a ceremony held on 20 April 2018 in London.

The deadline for entries is 5pm on Friday 19 January 2018.

The Regulation of Medical Associate Professions in the UK

This DH consultation seeks views on the regulation of medical associate professions in the UK, including physician associates, physicians’ assistants, surgical care practitioners and advanced critical care practitioners. The closing date for comments is 22 December 2017.

Nursing associate case studies published

Health Education England (HEE) has now published a range of case studies on the pilot nursing associate role programme, featuring the new trainees.

There are 2,000 nurse associates currently in training at 35 pilot sites across England.  The case studies document how the trainees feel about the pilot, what they are learning from the experience and the opportunities the role will offer them.

A critical care unit has introduced band 4 physiotherapy associate practitioners to provide seven-day enhanced mobilisation to elective surgical post-operative patients

The associate posts were introduced as part of a pilot service improvement project at Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Trust, but now have ongoing funding.

During the pilot, which started in April 2016, patients showed improvement in functional mobility scores at discharge from critical care. The Modified Rivermead Mobility Index showed an improvement from 19 to 26.

There was also a reduction in length of stay and a significant increase in critical care activity in this elective surgical patient group during the pilot phase, from 326 admissions to 363.

The band 4 practitioners, Zoe Gray and Laurie Zebik, were pivotal in the success of the service improvement project and were finalists at the chief allied health professions officer’s awards in London on 21 June.

New healthcare apprenticeship standards launched

Three new apprenticeship standards have been launched for healthcare support workers, senior healthcare support workers and assistant practitioners.

Seven day services in the NHS

New collection from NHS Improvement on seven day services in the NHS:

• What does it mean to provide seven day services?
• The 10 clinical standards
• The four priority standards
• What do seven day services mean for patients?
• Related content
• Resources

See also some shared learning case studies: 

• Implementing a central urgent advice line
• Improving access to urgent and emergency care
• Introducing seven day services to pharmacy roles (video)
• Introducing seven day services to a diagnostic team (video)
• Introducing seven day services - a transformation viewpoint (video)
• Seven day services learning and sharing event: challenges and solutions
• Providing seven day services for urgent and emergency care
• Providing 24/7 emergency care
• Introducing seven day services - a nursing viewpoint
• Introducing seven day services - a medical viewpoint
• Introducing seven day services to clinical support roles
• Introducing seven day services to therapy teams

Advanced Clinical Practitioner consultation launched

New Apprenticeship Standards are being developed in England which will replace the Apprenticeship Frameworks currently in use.  These new Standards describe the skills, knowledge and understanding required to carry out a specific occupation. The groups developing these new standards are called 'Trailblazers'.

The Healthcare Trailblazer has developed a new standard for Advanced Clinical Practitioner. This development of a standard seeks to underpin advanced practice across nursing and AHPs so it is important to ensure the proposal enables the development of AHP ACP roles across all sectors/ all professions/all roles

NMC agrees to regulate new nursing associate role

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) has formally agreed to a request from the Department of Health to be the regulator for the new nursing associate role.

Professor Jane Cummings, the Chief Nursing Officer for England, sets the record straight on the future of nursing

There are more than half a million registered nurses and midwives in England with 50,000

This year sees the introduction of a new role, the Nursing Associate, an important new addition to our team. Midwifery support workers have been in place for some time as have Associate Practitioners.

A Nursing Associate is not a registered nurse and will not replace them, but they will instead have the training and skills to bridge the gap between what a health care assistant can do and what a registered nurse is now needed to do.

Critics have suggested that this is a cheap replacement for nurses – this is not and must not be the case. This is an opportunity for thousands of talented people to gain the first step on the ladder not just to a job, but to a rewarding lifelong career.

Study looks at nursing assistants' effect on patient outcomes

This latest research into 243 hospitals across Europe found those with more professional nurses, compared to nursing assistants, had lower death rates after surgery and were rated more highly by nurses and patients.

However, analysis of the data is complicated by differences from country to country and interpreting it is more complex than media headlines suggest. It is unclear whether training for nursing assistants was equivalent in all countries studied. In England, the Department of Health plans to introduce "nursing associates", who would have 18 months' training and work alongside professional nurses and existing, less well-trained health care assistants.

Additionally, the study does not prove that more qualified nurses are the reason for the differences in death rates and quality of care. The research is based on one "snapshot" of what was happening in hospitals at one point in time (2009 to 2010). Other factors, such as local doctor staffing levels, may also have an effect on outcomes.

Nursing Associates – a new member of the multi-disciplinary workforce – Jane Cummings

Blog post from the Chief Nursing Officer on the new Nursing Associate role within the nursing family.

Health Education England announces training places for over 2,000 Nursing Associates

Health Education England (HEE) has announced the eleven partnership sites that will trial the new nursing associate role.

Over 1,000 nursing associates will start their training in December, aiming to provide quality hands on patient care, and support to nurses and support staff.

Applications open for nursing associate role test sites

Health Education England (HEE) is inviting partnership applications from organisations in health care settings who are interested in becoming test sites for the new nursing associate role.

Evaluation of the Care Assistant Development Programme: Learning from early implementation – SCIE evaluation report for HC-One

HC-One’s Care Assistant Development Programme (CADP) aims to develop senior carers into nursing assistants, trained up to assist with medication and care planning. The Programme enables newly-trained nursing assistants to support registered nurses and improves the quality of care provided to residents.

This report presents the findings from SCIE’s independent evaluation – commissioned by HC-One – of the early implementation of the Programme.