Developing the Role of Assistant Practitioner: Factors and Importance of Communication

ROLE DEVELOPMENT 1
DEVELOPING THE ROLE OF ASSISTANT PRACTITIONER
By ( )
Course (Class)
Professor (Tutor)
School (University)
City + State
The Date

ROLE DEVELOPMENT 2
Assistant practitioners are taken through the various processes to equip them with the necessary
skills required to work in a clinical environment. These processes of molding them with vital
skills beyond other traditional workers are what we refer to as the development of roles (Sabol
and White, 2016). Equipping assistant practitioner with essential skills generally helps an
organization or employers to have an adjustable combination of skills and knowledge that are
needed to meet patients' needs. The core standard of health dictates that an assistant practitioner
can discharge their duties concerning health and social assignments (Kessler and Spilsbury,
2019). The main question to ask in this assignment is why developing this role is needed. In
focusing on the goals of clinical work, there should be precision in giving responsibilities and
duties of their roles and how the consequences should be (Kessler and Spilsbury, 2019). In this
paper, I’m going to look at the various processes that influence the functions of assistant
practitioners and the importance of communication in their role and how they can apply their
knowledge to improve the general standard and skills in a clinical environment.
1. Factors that influence and contribute to the development of an assistant practitioner
An assistant practitioner is a college-trained support worker in the United Kingdom who assists
other registered personnel in a community and hospital setting. His or her role revolves around
discharging health and social attention to people. This part of the assignment looks into different
factors that affect their function
Increase in the number of patients
In the UK, the number of patients who seek medical attention has drastically risen in the past few
years. There has been an improvement in longevity and an increase in the aging population
(Raleigh, 2018). The patient carries with them different expectations, and this has caused the

ROLE DEVELOPMENT 3
National Health Service to respond to the increased demand of the assistant practitioners. This
increase in the number of patients leads to a rise in the need for practitioners (Malik, 2018). Old
age patient requires the attention of nurses all the time. However, with the shortage of nurses
around the United Kingdom, most old-age care homes are tackling this problem with the
assistant practitioners (Dean, 2016). The assistant practitioner role would help such homes to
respond to the problem. The importance of using this method is that the learner (assistant
practitioner) benefit from a variety of knowledge from physiology and anatomy (Maev-Ann
Wren et al., 2017). In return, aged care homes will see an improvement in the level of services
that are in offer. The next factor focuses on how the shortage of nurses influences the
development of assistant practitioners.
Shortage of nurses
The year 2015 saw UK experience significant demand in the number of nurses required (Manton
and Springer International Publishing Ag, 2019). At the time of the crisis, the UK had a shortage
of 15000 nurses (Dean, 2016). This did not include the shortfall that would have resulted after
the retirement of some nurses. Therefore, most care centers had to look for the support of
assistant practitioners. The role is founded on the training of senior health care workers who are
required to take on the primary task that involves nursing (Anon, 2018). Therefore, the assistant
practitioner can perform both clinical and non-clinical activities. Although there have been
complaining that assistant practitioners are assigned roles that don't equal their qualifications. I
believe this factor has significantly contributed to the development of assistant practitioners in
the UK.
Increased demand for healthcare

ROLE DEVELOPMENT 4
The expenditure for the National Health Service has been rising. The reason for this increment in
spending is a result of an increase in the cost of health administration. The price of medicine in
recent times has risen sharply. Most people over the age of sixteen are required to pay for
specialized treatment like optometry services (Schofield, 2016). A noticeable factor about
advances in demand for healthcare is that more health problem keeps on emerging. The more the
diseases, the more the specialist required. Looking at the goals of the UK, it is noticeable that
one of the highest priorities is health. While voting, people consider health care as the most
crucial feature of administration spending. There has also been an improvement in life
expectancy resulting in a higher number of patients in hospital and old aged homes (Schofield,
2016). Another reason why health care has risen is because of changes in the lifestyle of UK
residents .Although there has been a drop in the number of peoples who smoke, obesity is still a
problem. Another common disease like heart diseases and stress has caused a high demand for
healthcare (Shaefer, Hinnen and Sadler, 2016). Thus, the number of people required to sustain
the United Kingdom health demand also continues to rise. This demand creates a ground where
assistant practitioners are nurtured to respond to the rising health problem. Like the cases where
a significant number of nurses continue to shrink.
Cost-efficient and economical
Comparing training for other medical personnel and assistant practitioner, an associate
practitioner needs a secondary level of training. This training is usually up to National
Vocational Qualification level 3. Furthermore, a highly trained medical practitioner requires a
considerable amount of salary, which strains the health budget. This shifts the focus to an
assistant practitioner (Bartzsch et al, 2016). An assistant practitioner also provides an
environment for the student who initially wanted to pursue a career in nursing but failed due to

ROLE DEVELOPMENT 5
financial factors. Thus, being an associate practitioner would bring such a person closer to
his/her dream.
Technology
The UK health sector has seen significant development in the equipment used for treatment.
There has been an introduction of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography
(CT) for the past few decades (Ibrahim and Zerhouni, 2017). Therefore, this creates development
in need of the assistant practitioner. The field of operation of the associate practitioner involves
team assistant in diabetes and occupational therapy (Bartzsch et al., 2016). The specialized area
that consists of the use of technological equipment is radiography, especially for patients with
cancer. Other areas include nuclear medicine, mammography, and diagnostic radiography.
Radiography is an area that has contributed significantly to the rise of assistant practitioners
(Fuller, 2019). The sophistication that surrounds the use of X-ray methods leads to increased
demand for radiographers who possess added skills and techniques like the use of intravenous
injection (Bartzsch et al., 2016). There is a need for a large number of radiographers who can
perform such services like imaging. This demand has seen many assistant practitioners in many
imaging sections. However, they're mostly under the supervision of radiographers and other
specialists in their respective fields.
Flexibility and capacity
The subject of capacity and flexibility highlights the matter of staffing and the vast call for
medical services. The reason why assistants practitioner are flexible and capacitated is that they
help in undertaking more straightforward functions, which in return, allowing treatment of an
increasing number of patients (Stewart and Denisco, 2015).

ROLE DEVELOPMENT 6
Additionally, this eases the flow of work, therefore reducing the amount required to wait before
seeing a health practitioner (Shaefer, Hinnen and Sadler, 2016). As discussed initially, the
introduction of assistant practitioners is a cheaper or a cost-effective method of improving
capacity and meeting targets for the period of waiting. In most scenarios, the use of assistant
practitioners provides reinforcement in the health sectors.
Specialization in the health industry
The health industry has experienced many changes and the introduction of new policies. These
changes have created the urge for specialized positions and the administration of health attention
in different hospitals (Garvey, 2019). It has created many possibilities for people who would
want to join the field of health and medicine. The UK has faced the vast needs in the health
sector. There have been increased cases of obesity, an increase in the number of people with
diabetes, poor mental health, and instances of depression among the youths (Garvey, 2019).The
national hospital service, therefore, introduced the role of assistant practitioners. The main aim
has been to offer professional assistance to those people who are above band five (Venturini et
al., 2015). With increased specialization, the assistant practitioner role has been included to
provide a bridge between the specialist personnel and healthcare assistance.
Lastly, there has been a massive demand for improved and better services. In the United
Kingdom, the workforce in the field of health has been delegated more duties beyond their
profession. In the task, some of them were not trained and therefore led to poor services. Most
registered personnel also spent time focusing on paperwork (Ham, 2016). With the introduction
of assistant practitioners, medical staff can focus on the priority of their services and thus reduce
time wastage. This freed them some roles and thus shifted their focus to more complex duties
and responsibilities (Ham, 2016). Besides, the introduction of assistant practitioner would have