Nursing Associates What Is The New Role

Defined as “between a care assistant with an NVQ / QCF / RQF Diploma in Health and Social Care and a Registered Nurse” the Nursing Associate role is a new type of care worker with a higher skill set to assist, support and compliment the care given by registered nurses. The intention of the new role is to deliver hands on care which will free up time for existing nurses so they can use their specialist training to focus on care plan, risk managements and take more of a lead in decisions and managing patient care. While they will take on some of their functions, nursing associates will “assist” Registered Nurses, who remain ultimately responsible for patients.

What will it offer the individual?

The role of nursing associate will offer a senior “hands-on” role for those who prefer not to go to university, and will bridge the gap between senior healthcare assistants and Registered Nurses. The Nursing Associate will be similar to the role of Associate Practitioner and will be paid at an approximate level of NHS Pay Band 4, or equivalent, after training is complete. Learning will be on the job in apprenticeship-type role and will lead to a Foundation Degree (Level 5 NVQ). Once completed, nursing associates can go on to become a registered nurse via completing a shortened Nursing Degree at University.

What can the role offer to care homes?

Care homes are currently closing at the rate of at least one per week in England; research has shown that this is mainly due to a shortage of nurses. It seems that there is great difficulty in both recruiting and retaining care workers which is having a direct impact on the quality of care that people are receiving. Since Health Education England announced the new Nursing Associate role, some care providers are dealing with the nursing shortage by starting their own training schemes to improve senior care workers' skills or seeking external assistance from national training specialists such as Guardian Angels Training

What can we offer you?

Guardian Angels can offer care home providers a six-month development programme that is delivered onsite with six face-to-face training session. We develop a fully adaptable and bespoke programme to meet your local training needs, and we do this by following a full consultative approach with your most senior nurses within your care homes. This approach allows us to assess what exactly your learning and development needs are for this new role. Guardian Angels Training is currently working with a University to seek external Foundation Degree Status. Contact us today for an initial discussion.