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The role of advanced nursing practice in occupational health.

BACKGROUND
There is a concern that current specialist occupational health (OH) training programmes in the UK are not delivering nurses equipped to deal with the challenges of emerging practice. The development of new training programmes and advanced nurse practitioner (ANP) roles provide a potential solution. Although a model of advanced nursing practice has been developing, its relevance to OH has not been assessed.


AIMS
To collate information about OH nurses in the UK, their levels of training, and to collect their views on the relevance of ANP competencies to the specialty.


METHODS
An online questionnaire survey was carried out using a database of nurses working in OH. Each nurse received a direct invitation to participate with a link to the survey and one reminder.


RESULTS
Nine hundred and ninety-eight responses were included in the analysis. Eighty nine per cent had a specialist qualification in OH. A large majority of respondents believed that almost all the generic ANP competencies were important in current and future OH nursing practice. Only a few competencies (examination, diagnosis, referral, treatment) were felt to be more important in the future than currently. Over half (57%) agreed that in the future where OH nurses were working as specialists they should be trained as advanced nurse practitioners. Seventy one per cent of OH nurses agreed that a new multi-disciplinary qualification would be beneficial.


CONCLUSIONS
OH nurses recognize that ANP competencies are important to their current and future practice. There is enthusiasm in OH nursing for the introduction of advanced nursing practice and a new training programme.