Susan Aitkenhead

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Susan Aitkenhead Professional Adviser Policy and
Strategy The Nursing and Midwifery Council and
Advanced Nursing Practice Current Position 4
March 2008 Protecting the public through
professional standards
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• Todays briefing
• Reminder of legislation NMC works to
• Reviews of regulation
• Links to ANP

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The NMCs main objective
shall be to safeguard the health and well-being
of persons using or needing the services of
registrants. Ref Part II 3(4) The Nursing and
Midwifery Order 2001
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(No Transcript)
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The Nursing Midwifery Council
Protects the public proactively through
professional standards. Through its standards,
codes, rules and guidance, the NMC sets out a
path to enable practitioners to develop but also
to remain safe and effective.
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• Review of Regulation

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The regulation of the non-medical healthcare
professions (2006)

• Was published by the Department of Health
  (England) at the same time as Good doctors, safer
  patients addressing the regulation of medical
  staff.
• It was developed to examine the effectiveness of
  professional regulation.
• It posed several questions around the role,
  structure, functions, governance and number of
  regulators of non-medical healthcare professional
  staff.

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Trust, Assurance and Safety - The Regulation of
Health Professionals in the 21st Century The
White Paper published to set out a programme of
reform to the UKs system for the regulation of
health professionals, based on consultation on
the 2 reviews of professional regulation
published in July 2006 Good doctors, safer
patients and the regulation of the non-medical
healthcare professions.
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Key principles underpinning statutory
professional regulation

• First, its overriding interest should be the
  safety and quality of the care that patients
  receive from health professionals
• Second, professional regulation needs to be
  impartial. Regulators need to be independent of
  government, the professionals themselves,
  employers, educators and all the other interest
  groups involved in healthcare

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• Third, professional regulation should be as much
  about sustaining, improving and assuring the
  professional standards as it is about identifying
  and addressing poor practice or bad behaviour
• Fourth, professional regulation should not create
  unnecessary burdens, but be proportionate to the
  risk it addresses and the benefit it brings
• Finally, regulation needs to be applicable to
  public and private settings around the countries
  of the UK and adaptable to future circumstances

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• Link to Advanced Practice?

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History

• A major concern of the NMC, the public and many
  NMC registrants is the existence of the plethora
  of job titles that do not help the public to
  understand the level of care that they can
  expect.
• There are nurses who hold job titles that imply
  an advanced level of knowledge and competence,
  but who do not possess such knowledge and
  competence.
• In addition, their practice may not be subject to
  the scrutiny of another professional as they
  often act as independent practitioners.

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NMC also recognises

• That there are now significant changes in the way
  that services are delivered to patients,
  particularly following the GMS contract and EWTD,
  nurses, midwives and specialist community public
  health nurses are undertaking treatment and care
  that was once the domain of other health care
  professionals, notably doctors.

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• Consultation
• December 04 February 05
• External analysis undertaken
• Report to June Council 2005
• Registration
• Council agreed that advanced nurse practitioner
  should be a registrable qualification
• Council to seek approval from the Privy Council
  for opening a further sub-part to the nurses
  part of the register

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Steps Taken

• Approval sought from the Privy Council to open a
  further sub-part of the register in order to
  register advanced nurse practitioners
• A letter was sent to the Privy Council in
  December with additional information being sent
  in January 2006.

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Current Position

• Following an interval of very little movement,
  the NMC has now been very encouraged to read
  within the White Paper Trust, Assurance and
  Safety the Regulation of Health Professionals
  in the 21st Century (2007), that 

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• The Government agrees that the regulatory body
  for each non-medical profession should be in
  charge of approving the standards which
  registrants will need to meet to maintain their
  registration on a regular basis. Where
  appropriate, common standards and systems should
  be developed across professional groups where
  this would benefit patient safety. The Department
  will ask the Council for Healthcare Regulatory
  Excellence (CHRE) to work with regulators, the
  professions and those working on European and
  international standards to support this work.
  This will encompass the development of standards
  for higher levels of practice, particularly for
  advanced practice in nursing, AHPs and healthcare
  scientists. The Department will discuss with the
  Nursing and Midwifery Council the outcome of
  their consultation on advanced nursing practice
  to agree next steps (2.30).

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• Council has interpreted this very positively and
  looks forward to working in partnership with all
  the relevant stakeholders to progress this.

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• Please note that it is impossible to pre-empt any
  debate on the progression of this work until we
  have looked at the WPIP in totality, as the work
  from many aspects of the White Paper will cross
  over to the work on advanced nursing practice
  particularly revalidation.

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A spectrum of revalidation

• Revalidation is necessary for all health
  professionals, but its intensity and frequency
  needs to be proportionate to the risks inherent
  in the work in which each practitioner is
  involved -
• Trust, Assurance and Safety The Regulation of
  Health Professionals in the 21st Century.

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Defining Revalidation

• Continuous Professional Development?
• Post Registration Education and Practice?
• Recertification?
• Relicensure?
• Revalidation is a mechanism that allows health
  professionals to demonstrate that they remain
  up-to-date and fit to practise -
• Trust, Assurance and Safety The Regulation of
  Health Professionals in the 21st Century.

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• New NMC Adviser for Revalidation
• David Hutton
• David.hutton_at_nmc-uk.org

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• Involvement with the NMC
• Highlighted via newsletter
• Highlighted via website
• Database of stakeholders

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• susan.aitkenhead_at_nmc-uk.org
• www.nmc-uk.org

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Protecting the public through professional
standards