Admiral nursing competency project: practice development and action research

• Published in: Journal of clinical nursing 2005-07, Vol.14 (6), p.695-703
• Main Authors: Dewing, Jan, Traynor, Victoria
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Action research; Admiral Nurses; Attitude of Health Personnel; Clinical Competence - standards; Community Health Nursing - education; Community Health Nursing - organization & administration; Community nurse specialists; competency; Competency based learning; Cooperative Behavior; Dementia; Dementia - nursing; Education; emancipatory action research; Evidence-Based Medicine; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Health Services Research - organization & administration; higher level practice; Humans; Models, Nursing; Needs Assessment; Nurse Clinicians - education; Nurse Clinicians - organization & administration; Nurse Clinicians - psychology; Nurse's Role; Nursing; Nursing Evaluation Research - education; Nursing Evaluation Research - organization & administration; Organizational Culture; Outcome and Process Assessment (Health Care); Power (Psychology); practice development; Professional Autonomy; specialist nursing; Staff Development - organization & administration; United Kingdom
• ISSN: 0962-1067; 1365-2702
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2702.2005.01158.x

Aims and background.  Admiral Nurses are specialist dementia care nurses working in the community with carers of those who have a dementia. The aim of the competency project (2000–2003) was threefold. Firstly to work collaboratively with these specialist nurses to facilitate the development a competency framework that reflects the needs of the Admiral Nursing Service. Secondly, to provide a way to structure evidence demonstrating evolving competency. Thirdly, to specifically enable the nurses to demonstrate evidence of achieving the UK Nursing and Midwifery Council's Higher Level Practice standard. Design and methods.  The two complementary approaches of emancipatory action research and systematic practice development were adopted. Methods were taken from action research and systematic practice development approaches with an emphasis on promoting and enabling enlightenment, critical reflection, ownership and creating the best conditions for long‐term commitment to the competency framework. Results.  The main outcome from this project was the development of a specialist nursing competency framework. The Admiral Nurses’ Competency Framework is made up of a set of eight core competencies with three levels of competency statements, loosely structured around the Higher Level Practice standard, and guidance documentation to illustrate how work‐based evidence can be generated to demonstrate competence. There were also process‐derived outcomes associated with combining systematic practice development with emancipatory action research that had an impact on the culture. The main outcomes here were that practitioners engaged in and experienced learning about how to research their own practice and the consequences of doing this. They also learnt about specialist nursing practice more widely than Admiral Nursing. Finally, there was some increase in awareness about the culture within their teams and organizations. The final competency framework reflects the needs of the service, is owned by the majority of practitioners and project commissioners and this has had a positive impact on implementation. Conclusion.  In this paper, we report on combining systematic practice development with action research to achieve immediate project aims. In addition we show how a project of this nature can contribute to developing skills in practitioners necessary for cultural changes in practice and contributes to wider issues of modernization within nursing and health care. Relevance to