At a core level, the competencies and capabilities of the advanced nurse practitioner can be applied across a wide range of clinical and non-clinical settings.

Much work has been done in a variety of contexts to develop generic templates for broad KSF post outlines, role profiles and/or job descriptions. Some initial indicative alignment of advanced practice competencies to the KSF has already been carried out by the RCN/AANPE and, in Scotland, within the various NES frameworks listed in the Definitions section; this work has supported our model in its search for consistency.

We recognise that the needs of service users and the pace of service change, coupled with the roll-out of AfC and the KSF across Scotland, has led to the creation of a considerable number of local-level 'advanced' and 'specialist' practitioner job descriptors with associated KSF outlines.

Our toolkit aims to facilitate a nationally consistent approach by identifying likely common elements and those that may be considered context-specific. The core role profiles/job descriptions and generic templates for KSF post outlines aim to be consistent across contexts and to form the basis for sets of 'exemplars' for different clinical contexts which will show how the model can be applied for that area/client group.