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Providing, supervising and coordinating high-quality and compassionate health and social care for a wide range of people.
Typical Job Titles
Assistant Practitioner
Duration
18-24 months
Level
5
Review Date
After 3 years
Job profile
Assistant Practitioners work as part of the wider health and social care team and have direct contact with patients, service users or clients providing high quality and compassionate care. Assistant Practitioners work at a level above that of Healthcare Support Workers and have a more in-depth understanding about factors that influence health and ill-health (e.g. anatomy and physiology). Assistant Practitioner is a job title applied to a very wide variety of roles that have been developed locally by employers to meet individual service need. Upon successful completion of this standard, individuals will have obtained the core skills, knowledge and values/behaviours to become an Assistant Practitioner.
Examples of common work activities include assisting in total patient assessment, coordination of care (including referrals to other practitioners) and higher clinical skills such as catheterisation, wound care and discharge planning (1). Assistant Practitioners can be found working in a range of areas such as Cancer Services, Physiotherapy, Genito- Urinary Medicine, Orthopaedics, Hospice Care, Mental Health, Social Care, Community, Occupational Therapy, Learning Disabilities as well as hybrid roles that cross traditional occupational areas. (2) Assistant Practitioners will therefore develop additional skills and knowledge based on their employer’s requirements depending on the clinical or professional area within which they are working.
Responsibilities and duties of the role
An Assistant Practitioner works under the supervision of a Registered Practitioner (3) in accordance with employer
policy, protocols and standard operating procedures. The Registered Practitioner remains accountable for the appropriate and effective delegation of activities and must ensure that the AP has the competency, confidence and expertise to carry out such activities. Having accepted the activity, the AP is accountable for their actions. In a situation where the AP feels they do not have the necessary skills or ability then they must alert the registered practitioner immediately.
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Values Assistant Practitioners must be: |
Behaviours Assistant Practitioners must always: |
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Skill |
Definition |
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Responsibilities and duty of the role |
Undertakes defined clinical or therapeutic interventions appropriately delegated by a Registered Practitioner. |
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Case Management |
Manages own work and case load and implements programmes of care in line with current evidence, taking action relative to an individual’s (4) health and care needs. |
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Supervision and Teaching |
Allocates work to and supports the development of others and may supervise, teach, mentor and assess other staff as required. |
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Personal Development |
Maintains and further develops own skills and knowledge, and that of others, through recognised Continuing Professional Development (CPD) activities enabling flexibility in practice and responsiveness to changing service needs. |
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Team Working |
Promotes effective inter-professional and multi-disciplinary team working with peers, colleagues and staff from other agencies and provides appropriate leadership within the scope of the role. |
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Assessment |
Provides holistic assessment of individuals, implementing programmes of care and modifying individualised care plans within their scope of practice. |
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Communication |
Demonstrates the ability to communicate complex sensitive information to a wide variety of professionals through a variety of methods including the use of interpersonal skills, written and verbal effectiveness, accurate record keeping, keeping information confidential and appropriate use of technology and equipment for the role including data entry. |
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Person-centred care and wellbeing |
Promotes and understands the impact of effective health promotion, empowering, healthy lifestyles such as movement and nutrition and fluid balance. |
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Physiological Measurements (5) |
Undertakes physiological measurements as part of an assessment of an individual's healthcare status and following evaluation, makes appropriate changes or recommendations to care plan. Reports changes to the Registered Practitioner when the nature of the change falls outside of the agreed scope of role. |
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Risk Management |
Infection Prevention and Control: Uses and promotes a range of techniques to prevent the spread of infection including hand hygiene, the use of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and waste management. Health and safety: Promotes and maintains a safe and healthy working environment Risk Management: Identifies and manages risks, including assessment of moving and handling risk and understanding the nature of risk as it applies to the safeguarding of vulnerable individuals. |
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Equality and Diversity |
Promotes and advocates Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI). |
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Quality |
Proactively makes recommendations to improve the quality of service delivery. |
By the end of the programme and to become an Assistant Practitioner, Apprentices must have achieved the following:
For those Assistant Practitioners who wish to progress into Registered Practice, the apprenticeship can provide credits into some Higher Education programmes aligned to professional registration.
(1) list is not exhaustive
(2) list is not exhaustive
(3) 'Registered practitioner' - may include registered nurses, AHP practitioners, medical, health care science and dental practitioners as well as registered social workers
(4) 'Individuals' - those requiring care and support, may include patients, service users or clients
(5) Physiological Measurements include tests and procedures that focus on assessing how well the body is functioning
(6) The Care Certificate has been designed to meet the requirements set out in the Cavendish Review (2013) at the request of the Secretary of State to review and make recommendations on the recruitment, learning and development, management and support of the health and social care support workforce
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