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Advanced Clinical Practitioner Careers
There are two main routes into accessing an ACP career at NUH:
- Employed as a trainee ACP who then undertakes a structured training program
- Upskilling a current employee through the structured training program for example the specialist nurse working in oncology who takes on a more expanded autonomous role
The trainee ACP role is underpinned by a generic NUH ACP trainee personal specification and trainee ACP job description. The ACP role is underpinned by the pillars of advanced practice this allows applicants to come from a variety of career pathways as shown below.
Employment of trainee ACPs
To undertake the NUH ACP training pathway, trainee ACPs at NUH are appointed into a funded ACP training post. NUH has a generic trainee ACP minimal personal specification and generic trainee ACP job description. All NUH trainee posts are underpinned by a business case that reflects the training model and the NUH ACP training framework. Trainee ACPs at NUH are appointed at AFC band 6, as they progress through their training and meet certain milestones the AFC banding will increase.
The apprenticeship in Advanced Clinical Practice
Appointed trainee ACPs at NUH undertake an apprenticeship in Advanced Clinical Practice. The academic element of the apprenticeship is supported by the higher educator institute which maps to the national Advanced Clinical Practitioner apprenticeship standard. The course reflects the four pillars of Advanced Clinical Practice research, education, leadership and clinical practice and was written in partnership with NUH.
As the training is an apprenticeship, all trainees need to have level 2 Maths and English at point of completion or equivalent and have UK residency for a minimum of 3 years.
ACP Supervision
Supervision is fundamental to the training of an ACP and the completion of the advanced clinical practice portfolio, each trainee ACP will have a named educational supervisor and a buddy ACP.
HEE have released guidance for workplace ACP supervision which has been adopted by NUH.
The Qualified ACP
NUH has appointed a number of qualified ACPs from other organisations or supported the movement of an NUH ACP into a different specialty. There are 18 ACP speciality teams across NUH to find out more about these services.
The qualified ACP role is underpinned by the generic NUH ACP personal specification and trainee ACP job description. All qualified ACPs across NUH are rostered six hours a week continued professional development (CPD) time. Four hours of this CPD is to ensure ACPs continue to evidence and develop capability across the pillars of practice and maintain competence in their clinical competence. The remaining two hours is for the ACP to support service development in their clinical area examples being:
- Quality improvement projects
- Teaching and education activity
- Membership in clinical groups e.g. governance
- Development of protocol, policy and guidelines
- Supporting the local, regional and national ACP agenda
Careers for the qualified ACP
The NUH ACP strategic plan has an emphasis on supporting the careers of our qualified ACPs and work is ongoing in supporting this agenda. A number of new ACP posts have been implemented across the trust, below are some examples of these roles:
- Specialty lead ACP
- Senior clinical ACP
- Inter-professional ACP educator
- Trust lead ACP
NUH have ACP pillar steering groups for the three non-clinical pillars of practice. The purpose of these groups is to support the development of qualified ACPs through pillar specific CPD strategies, supporting career progression, facilitating education, promote the profile of ACPs and provide pillar specific supervision for qualified and trainee ACPs.