Arthritis charity sets up training course for senior nurses and other healthcare professionals
Senior rheumatology nurses and other healthcare professionals who cross traditional professional boundaries and take on extra clinical responsibilities are to be offered much-needed specialised training.
Medical research charity the Arthritis Research Campaign (arc) has awarded a grant of £64,367 to a specialist team to develop a series of short pilot courses to be run in a number of rheumatology departments across the country.
Many allied health professionals such as nurses, physiotherapists, and occupational therapists already have so-called extended roles, carrying out responsibilities once considered the sole province of rheumatologists.
These extended roles involve a high level of clinical practice, including the assessment of disease and follow-up and management of patients with inflammatory arthritis, which have proved popular with patients.
But although AHPs have developed specific clinical skills and expanded their roles beyond recognition over the past decade, they are using skills that are not part of their basis training.
“Most nurses we meet are desperate for good courses which are flexible, local, and not too expensive,” explained team leader Dr Karen Mounce, an associate specialist at the Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospital.
Dr Mounce is also the convenor of arc's working party for AHPs in rheumatology which has done an enormous amount to develop academic and clinical prospects for AHPs.
“We estimate about 1,000 AHPs will benefit from attending these training courses, by accruing validated points and integrating what they have learned into the workplace through a self-directed study pack,” added Dr Mounce.
The initial courses will contain core skills and training, progressing to cover intermediate and advanced training, up to Master's level.
arc's working party for AHPs in rheumatology spent four years defining extended roles in clinical practice, and practitioner and rheumatologist's views on clinical roles, skills and training requirements.
The lack of career structure and opportunities for professional development was partly addressed by arc's decision in 2000 to set up a £500,000 initiative to launch a pilot scheme of three five-year lectureships in academic nursing or related fields. Three senior nurses in Leeds, Bath and Bristol, and a physiotherapist at the University of Keele are now in post.
One of the senior lecturers, Dr Jackie Hill, who is also a rheumatology research sister at Chapel Allerton Hospital in Leeds, recently completed a clinical trial which showed that patients with arthritis do better in clinics run by senior nurses compared to those run by junior doctors.
The Arthritis Research Campaign is the fourth biggest medical research charity in the UK, and in the past 12 months raised more than £26m to fund its extensive research and education programme.
