Building foundations for the future: the NHS Scotland advanced practice succession planning development pathway

Abstract

Nurse managers are viewed as the 'gatekeepers' to opportunities for developing advanced nurse practitioners; scare resources must be targeted effectively to support succession planning through the development of selected individuals for future advanced practice posts, justified by service need.

Succession planning for advanced nursing practice; contingency or continuity? The Scottish experience

“…This is particularly notable in the case of online learning as the limited evidence provided by this evaluation indicates that experienced nurses may not favor this approach, suggesting that the growing trend to promote e-learning requires more robust evaluation. 34 Supporting Collins and Collins' 14 recommendation, participants in this study report that the relative effectiveness of any learning activity depends on the integration of learning with practical experience of the task at hand.…”

“…The final report of the NES Advanced Practice Succession Planning Development Pathway 34 will provide valuable information about the various elements of the NES pathway; however, the numbers of participants in the pilot project were small and both geographically and clinically diverse. In addition, recruitment to the NES pilot project was challenging for the organizers and did not quite reach the intended targets; this fact is in itself of interest and one wonders why the uptake of places on this pathway was rather disappointing.…”

“…23 Preliminary evaluation of this national pilot project indicates limited managerial involvement in planning for the role or future service contribution of those practitioners undertaking the development pathway. 24 Whilst the evidence is limited by the small sample size in the pilot project (n = 16), findings suggest that highly motivated individuals see the succession planning development pathway as an opportunity to 'trail blaze.' Conversely, their line managers have generally been unable to provide concrete examples of what they anticipate these practitioners will bring to the service following development.…”

“…Ongoing evaluation of the NES advanced practice succession planning pilot project has illustrated the variety of approaches to learning adopted by the pilot participants, 24 including formal accredited taught degree or MSc modules, shadowing experienced colleagues, work-based learning via learning contracts, on-line action learning sets and supported reflection with a critical companion.…”

Current nursing practice: challenges and successes

“…2009). In an article, related to ‘Building Foundations for the Future…’, the authors state that the roles of advanced nurses need to be sustainable and linked to areas of service needs, and that achieving this requires effective succession planning mechanisms (Currie et al. 2010).…”