NMC calls on employers and professionals to adopt new advanced practice principles

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) is urging professionals and employers to adopt its newly published Principles for Advanced Practice to enhance safer, more consistent care across the UK.

These principles establish clear expectations for advanced practice, addressing the lack of clarity in this field. Developed through UK-wide engagement, they provide regulatory definitions to guide professionals and help the public understand advanced practice.

The NMC encourages widespread adoption of these principles in workforce planning, education, and governance, forming the foundation for future regulatory measures. A phased approach will ensure a smooth transition, supporting nurses and midwives in delivering high-quality, person-centred care. 

Prof Donna O’Boyle, Acting Executive Director of Professional Practice at the NMC, said: 

“Across the UK, we’ve heard a clear message that advanced practice needs greater clarity, consistency and support. For too long, there has been a wide variation in how these roles are defined, deployed and supported. These principles offer a clear foundation that sets out what advanced level practice looks like and the benefits they would bring if supported by employers across all health and social care settings.”

“These principles are designed to support the transformation and delivery of care, to help meet the increasingly complex needs of those we care for, harnessing new technologies and changing ways of working. Nurses and midwives working at advanced levels of practice bring expert knowledge, complex decision-making skills and strong clinical leadership closer to the people receiving care.”

“We’re encouraging professionals, employers and educators to start using the principles now to shape workforce planning, education and day-to-day decisions. By doing so, we can help advanced practice thrive, and most importantly, to help ensure that people receive safer, consistent and person-centred care when they need it most.”

The UK’s chief nursing and midwifery officers said:

“The NMC’s principles for advanced practice will provide welcomed clarity for professionals, employers and the public by clearly setting out for the first time a consistent definition across the UK of what’s expected of nurses and midwives practising at an advanced level.”

“The principles are aligned to the existing advanced practice frameworks in each of our four countries of the UK; we strongly encourage professionals and their employers to use them to design and deliver services across all health and care settings.”

“These transformational principles mark an important first step towards the NMC setting standards for advanced practice. We look forward to continuing to work with the NMC and colleagues across the four nations of the UK as this work continues towards additional regulation of advanced practice.”

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