Analysis of service need and scrutiny of the capabilities and capacity of the existing and available workforce are the initial drivers for advanced practice role development. Expectations regarding the level of practice and the specific capabilities required in the context must be seen as a key linked elements to educational preparation and competence assessment.

All parties − the practitioner, the assessor, the service lead and the patient/client − must be able to understand what the advanced nurse practitioner can, and will, do to support care and that this will be measured consistently for all staff and across all contexts.

This is represented diagrammatically in the figure below ( Click on the diagram to animate)

Relationship between service need, workforce analysis, role expectations, educational preparation and competence assessment