The Nursing associate is a new registered role in England that bridges the gap between healthcare support workers and registered nurses to deliver hands-on, person-centred care as part of the nursing team. Nursing Associates work with people of all ages in a variety of settings in health and social care. The role was introduced in response to the Shape of Caring Review (2015), to help build the capacity of the nursing workforce and the delivery of high-quality care. It will be a vital part of the wider health and care team and aims to:
• Support the career progression of healthcare assistants
• Enable nurses to focus on more complex clinical work
• Increase the supply of nurses by providing a progression route into graduate-level nursing.
Nursing Associate: NHS AfC: Band 4 |
Student Nursing Associate: NHS AfC Band 3
Reimbursement by GP contract
100% of actual salary plus defined on-costs, up to the maximum reimbursable amount of £38,739 over 12 months.
This video was created by Health Education England.
Nursing Associates will work as part of the wider health and care team and will contribute to the core work of nursing, carrying out a range of activities from:
Administering medication
Dressing wounds
Promoting healthy lifestyle choices and wellbeing
Nursing associates can undertake additional training to carry out extended clinical skills such as cervical cytology
Work under the direct and indirect supervision of registered nurses and other registered health care professionals and may develop new knowledge and skills throughout their career
Nursing Associates are equipped with the knowledge, skills and behaviours to enable them to support the delivery of nursing care across a wide range of health and care settings to:
Undertaking clinical tasks including venepuncture and ECGs
Supporting individuals and their families and carers when faced with unwelcome news and life-changing diagnoses
Performing and recording clinical observations such as blood pressure, temperature, respirations and pulse
Discussing and sharing information with registered nurses on a patients’ condition, behaviour, activity and responses
Ensuring the privacy, dignity and safety of individuals is maintained at all times
Recognising issues relating to safeguarding vulnerable children and adults
The role is regulated by the Nursing Midwifery Council (NMC) and nursing associates work within the NMC code of conduct. Nursing Associates can develop their scope of practice, as with Registered Nurses & Registered Midwives in line with the NMC code.
Skills for Health have outlined the level 5 Nursing Associate skill requirements here.
The Primary Care Training Hub have collated a list of all available e-learning courses to the nursing workforce in primary care. We recommend to regularly check this document for newly added courses.
The Primary Care Training Hub have developed an Online Training and Learning webpage to compile all available online training courses. These online courses are from a range of different training providers and provide amazing e-learning development opportunities for primary care staff.
This NENC Training Page collates all training that is available to all localities across North East and North Cumbria, commissioned by The Primary Care Training Hub.
e-Learning for Healthcare
The following resources can be accessed via e-Learning for Healthcare (e-LfH). E-LfH provides free e-learning programmes which can support you in your professional development. If you do not already have an account, click here to register using your NHS email address. If you already have an account, please use the same link to firstly log in to access the following resources.
NEWS in Primary Care: This learning resource supports learners in understanding what NEWS is and how it can be used in Primary Care settings. There are also case studies to support the use of NEWS in work settings.
Mental Health Awareness for Healthcare Professionals: This course provides learning resources around the mental health for primary care workforce. The session topics include Self-Harm, Psychological Therapies, Physical Health Care for Mental Health Patients and Medically Unexplained symptoms.
Mental Health Awareness for Practice Nurses: This course has been designed for practice nurses in primary care for content surrounding mental health. The session topics include Managing Alcohol and Drug Misuse in Primary Care, Medication for Mental Health Problems in Primary Care, Care Planning, Specific Mental Health Conditions and Your Patient's Journey.
Resources for Nurses Deployed into Primary and Community Care: The learning resources provided here contain essential training materials to support Registered Nurses returning to work or being redeployed into a primary and community setting. This includes, GP surgeries, community and care home settings. The training here is intended to equip you with the basics and get you started and complement any training that you will receive in a local practice setting.
Five Ways to Wellbeing: This course introduces the concept of wellbeing and describes how the Five Ways to Wellbeing can be implemented in a variety of settings to promote it.
Wound Care: This e-learning programme aims to support the health and care workforce in developing the knowledge and skills required to enable appropriate wound care to be delivered to people in any setting.
Dementia: The dementia e-learning modules have been designed to familiarise health and social care staff with approaches they can take to enable people living with dementia and their family carers to live as well as possible.
Making Every Contact Count (MECC): The MECC e-learning programme is designed to support learners in developing an understanding of public health and the factors that impact on a person’s health and wellbeing. It focuses on how asking questions and listening effectively to people is a vital role for us all.
NHS Health Check (HCV): This e-Learning resource is aimed at supporting all staff involved in administering the NHS Health Check, including nurses, pharmacists and healthcare assistants.
General Practice Nursing Toolkit: General Practice Nurses work as part of a Multidisciplinary Team (MDT) within GP surgeries and assess, screen and treat patients of all ages. In addition to providing traditional aspects of nursing care such as wound care, immunisations and administration of medicines, they run clinics for patients with LTCs.
This list is not exhaustive and the programmes available are regularly updated, so we recommend visiting the e-LfH portal and reviewing the available resources via using the “View full catalogue” function, or the “Search the e-learning" function.
Student Nursing Associates (SNA) will need an NMC registrant to act as an overall assessor for the duration of their training programme. They do not have to spend all their time with the assessor. Their role is to oversee the training and ensure the trainee is progressing and has learning opportunities and meet with them on a regular basis.
The SNA will be expected to spend time with other registered Health Care Professions (HCP) who will contribute to their supervision and learning this may be other registered nurses, GP pharmacist and AHP.
Upon qualifying a registered nursing associate will require opportunities for ongoing learning and development and clinical supervision just like a registered nurse. They should work under the indirect and direct supervision of Registered Health Care Professionals (HCP). An appropriate named individual in the PCN should be present to provide general advice and support on a day to day basis.
To become a Registered Nursing Associate an Individual must undertake a two-year training programme which is usually an apprenticeship. This means the trainee will remain an employee.
They develop skills and proficiencies in the workplace as well as study for an academic qualification at a university. This will be at foundation degree level and incorporates theory for the Student Nursing Associates (SNAs) to apply to clinical practice.
The training enables SNAs to come together as a diverse group of adult learners from a variety of different health and social sectors.
Trainees would undertake 2300 practice learning hours, split 50/50 in learning & practice, including alternative placements & protected learning time.
Minimum entry requirements for those wishing to undertake the programme are;
Level 2 Functional Skills in English and Maths or GCS/GCSE English and Maths (Grade C or above) or equivalent.
A commitment to complete a Foundation Degree programme
Intermediate IT skills
Up to date Enhanced Disclosure & Barring Service Certificate
Some Universities may also have additional requirements.
The candidate is invited to a values-based interview which will be conducted jointly by the employer and education provider.
Upon successful completion of the programme SNAs will be able to register with the NMC as a registered nursing associate.
The Student Nursing Associate programme is delivered by a university. Local providers who deliver the programme:
Upon qualifying Registered Nursing Associates can access additional continuous professional development (CPD).
More information about the Registered Nurse Degree Apprenticeship can be found here.
Apprenticeship Costs
As this is an apprenticeship programme the fees for the course are covered by the apprenticeship levy.
The current cost of the university programme is £15,000.
If your organisation is not a levy payer you can secure apprenticeship funding centrally to pay for the training/tuition costs for your Apprentice.
Please be aware that the funding reservation will only cover 95% of the training costs with the remaining 5% being paid by your organisation directly to the training provider.
Alternatively, you maybe able to obtain a levy transfer. This is where larger organisations may be able to gift some of their unused levy. If a transfer can be sourced, this will cover 100% of the programme fees.
This is not guaranteed as there may be no levy transfers available so you should still look to reserve the funds by the standard route mentioned above. If you are interested in a levy transfer, you can contact NHS England's Apprenticeship Team who could support with this: england.levytransfer.north@nhs.net.
Produced by the HEE Knowledge Management team, the Evidence Brief offers a quick overview of the published reports, research and evidence on Nursing Associates.
The Shape of Caring review published in March 2015, aims to ensure that throughout their careers nurses and care assistants receive consistent high quality education and training which supports high quality care over the next 15 years.
This framework has been created to develop a national solution to enable a consistent approach to ensuring the whole district and general practice nursing team are equipped to deliver health outcomes now and in the future.
Public Health England have provided the Core Curriculum for Immunisation training to describe the minimum training that should be given to all practitioners engaging in any aspect of immunisation so that they are able to confidently, competently, safely and effectively promote and administer vaccinations.
