Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Assistant Practitioners: Issues Of Accountability, Delegation And Competence, Hazel Mackey, Susan Nancarrow

Susan Nancarrow

The NHS Modernisation Agenda, alongside workforce shortages in health care professions, has led to increasing interest in the role of assistant practitioners in the delivery of health and social care. This paper describes the introduction and evaluation of assistant practitioners in occupational therapy who were empowered to work independently in a limited number of interventions and services within an NHS Trust. The evaluation involved focus groups with four groups of key stakeholders, the assistant practitioners, their supervisors, managers and service users. Key themes included ambiguity about who takes responsibility for the outcomes of care and uncertainty about challenging the role …