Role of advanced practitioners in providing workplace supervision to trainees

Further development of advanced nursing practice, particularly in community and primary care settings, is needed to meet the growing demand for healthcare and support the transformation of the healthcare service. Nurses working at advanced practice level must be able to synthesise complex issues, navigate clinical risk and uncertainty, and find innovative solutions for improving access to care, patient experience and patient outcomes. To develop these abilities, nurses training to become advanced practitioners (APs) need to receive high-quality workplace supervision. It is therefore crucial to help APs tasked with supervising trainee APs to develop skills and competence in their supervisory role. This article discusses the role of APs in providing workplace supervision to trainees. The authors present a new qualitative research project designed to examine how APs are prepared to take on a supervisory role and identify their education and support needs in that role.