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Developing New Clinical Roles: A Guide for Health Professionals
Book/media reviews
specialities, in a variety of settings. It is especially commendable that the format encourages inter-disciplinary working and the involvement of clinicians with varying degrees of expertise as well as the patient and carer. This resource pack would be a valuable resource to any clinician or health service manager embarking upon the often confusing and complicated process of identifying, implementing and evaluating clinical guidelines. Stacy Johnson Health Economist University of Nottingham UK doi: 10.1054/nedt.2001.0710, available online at http: // www.idealibrary.com on
Developing new clinical roles: a guide for health professionals Debra Humphris and Abigail Masterson Churchill Livingstone, Edinburgh, 2000 ISBN 0443070717, pages 207 £19.95
As course leader for a postgraduate nursing programme, I was delighted to be given an opportunity to review this important new text. The cover states that the book provides a source of information and ideas for practitioners, managers, researchers and policy makers. I would certainly add nurse educators to this list. The book has obvious relevance for those delivering post-registration courses to the occupants of ± and aspirants to ± new clinical roles. However, it also provides an excellent overview of developments at the `top end' of the profession that should inform the way we educate the practitioners of the future. The book brilliantly captures the atmosphere of challenge and uncertainty, excitement and fear, which pervades health care at the start of the third millennium. As with any edited collection, it is difficult to maintain a balance between breadth and depth. On the whole, however, the chapters in this book are concisely written and well-presented, thus covering a wealth of material in relatively
352 Nurse EducationToday (2002) 22, 350±353
few pages. The possible exception may be Chapter 4, on learning in practice, which skims over the reflective practice agenda and substitutes bullet points for explanation. The other `how to' chapters address evidence-based practice and evaluation research in a rather more convincing manner, drawing on real world case studies to provide practical illustrations. However, the real strength of this book lies in the diversity of contributors and its application to other health care professionals as well as nurses. Tina Funnell's chapter exploring the consumer perspective was particularly thought-provoking and is obviously the work of someone who has `been there, seen that and got the T-shirt'. It contains brief but penetrating insights into the way the voluntary and self-help sectors are working with health care professionals to develop the services people both want and need. The book gives a useful overview of the way the debate over advanced and specialist practice is developing in the UK and analyses key drivers for change. Inevitably, given the relative size of the professions and the availability of published research, nursing is privileged over the smaller health care professions. However, I am sure that the non-nurse reader would remain engaged with the text as great effort is taken to highlight the common ground. It certainly adds a welcome dimension to the book for the reader with a background in nursing, setting our professional agenda in a broader historical context and illustrating the challenges and constraints faced by other professions. The chapter on the changing face of primary care is written from the viewpoint of community pharmacy, offering a fresh perspective on the vision of a `primary-care led' NHS. The chapter on managing new roles within the service, on the other hand, is written from a nursing perspective where specialist roles have a longer history. At £19.95, the book is at the upper end of the price range for paperbacks of this kind. It would be a shame if this puts the book out of the reach of some potential readers, as the overview of policy and debate is so valuable. Sometimes issues are raised but not fully explored ± e.g. the questions of power
Book/media reviews
and exploitation raised by the substitution of one profession another, or the emergence of a dispensable pool of poorly-paid peripheral staff to support the specialists at the core. As indicated by the title, the book works as a practical guide for those establishing new roles, although further reading would be necessary. Perhaps more importantly, however, it also works as a commentary on key developments in UK health care and service delivery, locating the development of new clinical roles in well-developed historical and contemporary policy framework. For
anyone seeking a grip on where new clinical roles have come from and where they may be going, this book has to join the list of recommended reading. Linda East Lecturer, School of Nursing University of Nottingham Nottingham, UK doi: 10.1054/nedt.2001.0711, available online at http: // www.idealibrary.com on
Nurse EducationToday (2002) 22, 350±353 353
specialities, in a variety of settings. It is especially commendable that the format encourages inter-disciplinary working and the involvement of clinicians with varying degrees of expertise as well as the patient and carer. This resource pack would be a valuable resource to any clinician or health service manager embarking upon the often confusing and complicated process of identifying, implementing and evaluating clinical guidelines. Stacy Johnson Health Economist University of Nottingham UK doi: 10.1054/nedt.2001.0710, available online at http: // www.idealibrary.com on
Developing new clinical roles: a guide for health professionals Debra Humphris and Abigail Masterson Churchill Livingstone, Edinburgh, 2000 ISBN 0443070717, pages 207 £19.95
As course leader for a postgraduate nursing programme, I was delighted to be given an opportunity to review this important new text. The cover states that the book provides a source of information and ideas for practitioners, managers, researchers and policy makers. I would certainly add nurse educators to this list. The book has obvious relevance for those delivering post-registration courses to the occupants of ± and aspirants to ± new clinical roles. However, it also provides an excellent overview of developments at the `top end' of the profession that should inform the way we educate the practitioners of the future. The book brilliantly captures the atmosphere of challenge and uncertainty, excitement and fear, which pervades health care at the start of the third millennium. As with any edited collection, it is difficult to maintain a balance between breadth and depth. On the whole, however, the chapters in this book are concisely written and well-presented, thus covering a wealth of material in relatively
352 Nurse EducationToday (2002) 22, 350±353
few pages. The possible exception may be Chapter 4, on learning in practice, which skims over the reflective practice agenda and substitutes bullet points for explanation. The other `how to' chapters address evidence-based practice and evaluation research in a rather more convincing manner, drawing on real world case studies to provide practical illustrations. However, the real strength of this book lies in the diversity of contributors and its application to other health care professionals as well as nurses. Tina Funnell's chapter exploring the consumer perspective was particularly thought-provoking and is obviously the work of someone who has `been there, seen that and got the T-shirt'. It contains brief but penetrating insights into the way the voluntary and self-help sectors are working with health care professionals to develop the services people both want and need. The book gives a useful overview of the way the debate over advanced and specialist practice is developing in the UK and analyses key drivers for change. Inevitably, given the relative size of the professions and the availability of published research, nursing is privileged over the smaller health care professions. However, I am sure that the non-nurse reader would remain engaged with the text as great effort is taken to highlight the common ground. It certainly adds a welcome dimension to the book for the reader with a background in nursing, setting our professional agenda in a broader historical context and illustrating the challenges and constraints faced by other professions. The chapter on the changing face of primary care is written from the viewpoint of community pharmacy, offering a fresh perspective on the vision of a `primary-care led' NHS. The chapter on managing new roles within the service, on the other hand, is written from a nursing perspective where specialist roles have a longer history. At £19.95, the book is at the upper end of the price range for paperbacks of this kind. It would be a shame if this puts the book out of the reach of some potential readers, as the overview of policy and debate is so valuable. Sometimes issues are raised but not fully explored ± e.g. the questions of power
Book/media reviews
and exploitation raised by the substitution of one profession another, or the emergence of a dispensable pool of poorly-paid peripheral staff to support the specialists at the core. As indicated by the title, the book works as a practical guide for those establishing new roles, although further reading would be necessary. Perhaps more importantly, however, it also works as a commentary on key developments in UK health care and service delivery, locating the development of new clinical roles in well-developed historical and contemporary policy framework. For
anyone seeking a grip on where new clinical roles have come from and where they may be going, this book has to join the list of recommended reading. Linda East Lecturer, School of Nursing University of Nottingham Nottingham, UK doi: 10.1054/nedt.2001.0711, available online at http: // www.idealibrary.com on
Nurse EducationToday (2002) 22, 350±353 353