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Competencies for Practice Development
Nurses Consultation
Your views on content and usefulness of these competencies would be
welcome via the feedback form.
INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND
Practice development is a nebulous activity, which in many instances
is poorly articulated by those involved in it (Unsworth J unpublished).
Many organisations have a variety of roles with various job titles, job
descriptions and role responsibilities attached to them (Mallett et al
1999, McCormack et al 1999).
There is a growing body of evidence to suggest that practice development
as a process, achieves a more fruitful outcome if facilitated by staff
dedicated to the project (McCormack 2000). In light of this the Professional
And Practice Development Nurses Forum (PPDNF) (Scotland) considered it
appropriate to identify the various activities undertaken by its members
as part of their practice development role and compare these activities
to those described in the literature.
The initial discussion revealed a wide-ranging number of activities,
some, although not all, of which would appear to be core to practice
development. What became apparent throughout the discussion was that
the activities mentioned within the literature were viewed as general
descriptions only. Some activities were better described than others,
though no composite list of activities was available with which an employer
could form the basis of a practice development post. This was felt to
be one of the reasons why the membership had such a diverse range of
roles. The roles in many cases were ad hoc, appeared to be responsive
to local need and expanded in a variety of ways. Roles were not necessarily
strategically driven and in some cases not strictly practice development.
In order to examine this further, members of the PPDNF formed a working
group, the aim of which was to produce competencies for practice development.
THE WORKING GROUP
The working group is small and its members are employed full time within
their own organisations, membership of the PPDNF (Scotland) is voluntary.
One of the first tasks set by the group was to decide upon a working
definition for practice development. The one chosen was that by McCormack
and Garbett (2000). This would be the basis for future work.
"Practice development is a continuous process of development
towards increasing effectiveness in patient centred care. This is
brought about by enabling health care teams to develop their knowledge
and skills and to transform the culture and context of care. It is
enabled and supported by facilitators committed to systematic, rigorous
and emancipatory change that reflect the perspectives of service
users and service providers"
(McCormack and Garbett, 2000)
To begin with the group studied the definition and reflected upon the
meaning of the statement and their own roles. Although it was acknowledged
that the statement by McCormack and Garbett (2000) did not truly reflect
all aspects of the posts held by the group members, they agreed that
it was what they would like to work towards.
The group then dissected the statement, breaking it down into component
parts and from this agreed the domains of practice development that the
definition had identified. This complex piece of work took a considerable
amount of time as each section was discussed, examined and analysed to
ensure that essential interpretation of the words used had not been lost
as the group moved them around within their discussion. A mind map was
used to capture the domains of practice development as they were debated
within the group. To make certain that, as stated before, nothing was
lost in the interpretation they were then mapped back against the original
definition.
The subsequent work, again using a mind map identified smaller components
from the domains, these are the competencies for practice development.
The final component is the supporting criteria: what is required to achieve
the competency.
Appendix 1 is the latest draft of the work.
The group utilised previous work undertaken by the NBS and the RCN to
guide them in structuring the competencies such as the A&E nurses
and Infection Control Nurses competencies.
As a final point, it is acknowledged that the competencies and key criteria
are viewed as dedicated skills to which all practice development nurses
should aspire. What is also acknowledged is that practice development,
as a process is dynamic and should be considered integral to the development
of nursing practice.
These competencies should help nurses work towards this ideal. They
can be used in a variety of ways:
- through a job description
- personal development plan
- a personal portfolio
DOMAIN
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AREA COMPETENCE
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COMPETENCY
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KEY CRITERIA
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LEADERSHIP
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Demonstrating leadership in the development of practice
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A:
1.Provide leadership support to individuals and teams thereby
facilitating emancipatory change within the organisation
2. Create a clear strategic vision that facilitates Innovation.
3. Develop partnership arrangements that are mutually productive.
4.Emphasise the processes and conditions for others to be effective
within their teams.
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i. Adopt a leadership philosophy that will enable practice to
be vision driven.
ii. Facilitate and support a culture which produces sustained
behaviours and leads to emancipatory changes.
iii. Formulate, provide and/or evaluate a Practice Development
strategy which takes cognisance of local and national nursing strategies.
Negotiate with others to:-
- establish and maintain professional networks internal and external
to the organisation.
- seek and form collaborative relationships.
- communicate and display good interpersonal behaviours in particular:-
understanding the issues associated with group behaviour and
team work, the dynamics of resolving conflict, motivating and
influencing others.
iv. Support services by providing specialist advice which is both
reactive and proactive.
v. Understand and analyse the organisation to support the changing
culture
vi. Be a critical reflector and promote reflective practice through
structures such as clinical supervision/action learning.
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RESEARCH and DEVELOPMENT
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Interpreting, Supporting and participating in Research and Development
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B:
1. Critically analyse published literature.
2. Participate or support others to participate in research.
3. Facilitate the implementation of research findings relevant
to practice.
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i. Be knowledgeable about the research process and be aware of
appropriate methodologies
ii Be aware of and adhere to ethical considerations when involved
in research
iii. Critically review and facilitate implementation of relevant
research findings, and from this formulate a proposal for action.
iv. Identify key personnel, resources and data to facilitate the
process of identifying and/or implementing clinically effective
evidence based practice.
v. Network and forge links with national and educational establishments
to undertake collaborative research.
vi. Identify research opportunities and construct a research proposal.
vii. Provide a leadership role to others who wish to undertake
research
viii. Adapt research findings to meet local needs and resources
whilst maintaining the essence of the findings.
ix. Ensure that changes to practice are effective by evaluating
in on systematic and rigorous manner.
x. Ensure active involvement in research projects.
xi. Publish the findings of the research to ensure wide dissemination.
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KNOWLEDGE & LEARNING
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Self learning and professional development of others.
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C;
1. The promotion and development of professional knowledge and
skills through life long learning to ensure high standards of patient
care.
2. Establish an environment that promotes continual learning.
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Use i. Use and facilitate in others
reflective practice to formulate and prioritise strategies for
self development.
ii. Measure own and facilitate in others the ability to self
assess competence, analyse deficits and plan
actions to resolve.
iii. Develop own and facilitate in
others improved competency in structured ways e.g. academic courses,
conferences or private individual study.
iv. Contribute to the development
and/or review of learning activities.
v. Use a range of resources to develop
and update specialist knowledge
vi. Actively promote development and
innovation in practice
vii. Develop strategies which assist
with the integration of learning from practice and education settings.
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MANAGING CHANGE
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Developing practice with due consideration to the organisation.
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D;
1. Employ effective processes to enable, facilitate and support
innovation in practice
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i, Demonstrate an ability to work with teams and individuals to
enable facilitate and support change within practice.
ii. Adopt a persona which encourages the ability to be visionary
in outlook and manner.
iii. Respond to a national and /or local agenda by facilitating
changes
iv. Interpret information within own organisation to support change
which takes cognisance of the organisational culture.
v. Recognise the demands on available resources demonstrating
expertise in minimising the impact on them.
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QUALITY
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Ensuring Quality is integral to practice development.
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E;
1. Use effective processes to impact on improving patient care.
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i. Utilise national standards and guidelines to drive evidence
based practice
ii. Ensure effective and systematic monitoring of services through
appropriate evaluation techniques. Such as clinical audits.
iii. Establish effective strategies to disseminate evidence of
best practice.
iv. Participate in the review and update of policies, procedures
and standards in keeping with evidence based practice.
v. Interpret findings and produce structured reports from evaluation.
vi. Introduce staff to, and involve them in, appropriate methods
of evaluation.
vii. Facilitate changes in practice as necessary following evaluation,
and national body recommendations e.g. SHAS, CSBS.
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Your views on content and usefulness of these competencies would be
welcome via the feedback form.
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