Embedding interprofessional education and collaborative practice (IPECP) is a priority in academia and healthcare practice settings globally (Barr et al, 2017). IPECP has been further endorsed by professional and regulatory bodies, for example, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society's (2021)A Competency Framework for all Prescribers has been adopted by professional regulatory bodies including the Nursing and Midwifery Council. This provides an opportunity for interprofessional learning and supervision in prescribing practice, a key element of MSc Advanced Practice programmes.
Despite progress made in developing multiprofessional advanced practice frameworks at national level, the impact of applying frameworks within a clinical practice context is not known. Principles of interprofessional education (IPE) align closely with current advanced practice workforce priorities, including safe care, integrated person-centred care and the need for collaborative practitioners who are prepared to challenge traditional boundaries in order to continuously improve quality in health and social care delivery.
Health Education England (HEE) published key documents on standards and guidance for advanced practice, namely: Multi-professional Framework for Advanced Clinical Practice in England (HEE, 2017), Workplace Supervision for Advanced Clinical Practice (HEE, 2020a) and the Multi-professional Consultant-level Practice Capability and Impact Framework (HEE, 2020b). NHS employers in England must ensure that these standards are embedded within advanced practice policies and procedures, with patient safety at the centre (HEE, 2017).
In 2020, I was recruited into an NHS Trust-wide advanced practice education leadership role to lead on the development and implementation of a governance strategy, education and supervision policy aligned to HEE standards for advanced and consultant-level practice. As a key part of my role, a multiprofessional education policy for advanced practice aligned mainly to the three HEE documents was co-produced, following pilot quality improvement educational interventions – multiprofessional advanced practice Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) workshops over a 12-month period, and a course for multiprofessional advanced practice supervisors. Schober et al's (2016) conceptual policy framework for advanced practice nursing was adapted and used to develop an educational policy for advanced and consultant-level practice at the Trust, which serves acute and community sites. To do this, I drew on my expertise in medical education for medical and physician associate students, as well as my previous role as a senior lecturer in MSc Advanced Practice.
This 12-month quality improvement project in work-based learning and the development of a Trust educational policy aligned to HEE standards will be evaluated using the Student Perceptions of Interprofessional Clinical Education (revised instrument), a standardised, validated tool to assess educational outcomes related to IPE (Zorek et al, 2017).
It is hoped that this evaluation will provide evidence on whether or not this approach to the integration of interprofessional education and collaborative practice has been successful in developing multiprofessional advanced practitioners in clinical practice settings.