Letter from the ANPF Chair: Jenny Aston

Published: 18 December 2009

As I write we've just enjoyed a really excellent conference with a good mix of political issues and clinical topics. Both Rosemary Macalister-Smith (Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence) and Chris Caldwell (Department of Health) felt that now is a time of great opportunity for nursing, more so than at any time in the last 20 years.

The political climate does seem to be more open to the concept of involving nurses in higher-level decision making. The NMC is currently working on revalidation, which may demonstrate the need for some form of regulation in the near future.

Other groups such as GPs are taking a much keener interest in ANPs and how they are trained. It may be that demand for a national standard will come from our medical colleagues. Involvement in the Royal College of General Practitioner's GP Foundation is proving useful in gaining our GP colleagues' support.

RCN policy statement on regulation

At the conference we were able to launch the RCN draft position statement on advanced practice which aims to clarify the RCN's view.

It states: "Nurses are increasingly extending their scope of practice well beyond initial registration in all health care settings ... The RCN now believes that there are compelling grounds for regulation and standardisation at advanced levels of nursing practice for patient safety and public protection."

You can download and read the draft policy statement here: RCN's position on advanced nursing practice (PDF 119.6KB).

Once this statement is refined and agreed by a wider group of forums in the RCN, the plan is to use it to promote the RCN ANP competencies with employers, educators and nurses to help ensure an agreed national standard.

Your opinion matters

The King's Fund is running an 18-month enquiry into the quality of general practice in England. As part of this work, they are conducting an online opinion survey on the extent to which general practice is currently providing high quality patient care and the reaction of those working in general practice on current approaches to quality improvement. Make sure you contribute to this important work.

Fly the flag for ANPs

 And finally, here are a few tips to increase the profile of ANPs nationally:

• We would really like to increase our presence in the RCN so we are asking each and every one of you to make sure the ANPF is your first choice forum, which is the one you can vote on behalf of at Congress. You can do this via My RCN or by phoning RCN Direct on 0345 772 6100.
• Encourage your colleagues to join the ANPF.
• Become involved in local commissioning so that ANPs are leading on good care and shaping health care delivery.
• Use every opportunity to promote your role and the value of what you do.