Letter from your editor - Mary Hutchinson
Published: 21 September 2012
In keeping with the Olympic motto ‘citius, altius, fortius’ (faster, higher, stronger), the International Council of Nurses and Advanced Nursing Practice Network themed and infused their seventh international conference programme with the spirit that has lit up London during the Olympic and Paralympic games this summer.
The RCN ANP Forum committee was honoured to assist in the smooth day-to-day running of this inspiring conference, as well as contribute to diverse concurrent presentations. The global reality of nurses who advance their practice was illustrated by keynote speakers who work at the international level – it was encouraging to note that each reminded us of the timeless core values of nursing in establishing the therapeutic relationship and delivering meaningful care. Wendy Fairhurst, who served on the organising committee for this event, provides a synopsis of the conference. You can download the complete book of abstracts, Advanced nursing practice: global vision - global reality (PDF 1.16MB) [see how to access PDF files].
The RCN ANP Forum is also marking beginnings and endings at the moment. Chair Jenny Aston will be stepping down in November 2012 after nine years at the helm. Jenny is owed enormous thanks for her tireless work in diverse arenas to promote the identity, qualities and value of the advanced nurse practitioner, and argue the importance of the regulation of the role to protect the public and practitioners alike. Her work, earlier this decade, with the multi-disciplinary national service leads to create updated guidelines for ‘clinical imaging requests from non-medically qualified professionals’, resulted in mutual agreement that enabled many nurse practitioners to safely expand their role in relation to the use of ionising radiation. At present, Jenny is working constructively with the Royal College of General Practitioners to create a practice nurse competency framework and to identify a standardised education, training and experience foundation from which future advanced practitioners in primary care can be developed.
Wendy Fairhurst will pick up the responsibility of chairing the RCN ANP Forum for the next four years – as ANP nurse partner and co-director of an award-winning social enterprise, Wendy has lived experience of the contemporary change through which the NHS is passing. She has contributed a brief outline on a potential governance framework to enable employers to safely monitor and regulate the practice of their ANPs. We welcome two new committee members, Sue Shortland and Andrew Rideout, who will formally commence their posts in January 2013.
Rebecca Cheatle, our new RCN Primary Care Adviser, commenced her post in early summer 2012 – we look forward to working with her on the many pressing issues that face ANPs today. These are clarified in the responses to the ANP survey carried out in May 2012, and summarised by Julie Hall in this newsletter. A longer report of the ANP survey was published in Independent Nurse (17 September 2012).
We have included a progress report on the ANP Forum Medicines Management project, the opportunity to petition the government on the subject of nurses signing Med 3 certificates, and brief updates from the wider United Kingdom.
On a final note, the NHS Commissioning Board will be established as an independent body, at arm’s length to the Government (an executive non-departmental public body) in October 2012. Initially it will carry out limited functions such as establishing and authorising clinical commissioning groups. The board will take on its full range of responsibilities and the new commissioning system will begin to operate once it is fully established from April 2013. To find out more about the proposals for how the NHS Commissioning Board may operate, read Developing the NHS Commissioning Board (PDF, 1.4MB).
We hope you enjoy this edition of Fast Forward. If you would like to get in contact with us, please email Advanced Nurse Practitioner Forum Co-ordinator Sandra Hall at: Sandra.hall@rcn.org.uk with any newsletter queries, ideas or articles. She will forward any message to the most appropriate steering committee member.