HEALTHCARE

Revision of professional roles and quality improvement. A review of the evidence (26th February 2010)
This report, from the Health Foundation, considers the impact of professional role revision on quality of care and outcomes. It focuses on two types of changes to professional roles:

• Substitution – exchanging one type of professional for another.
• Supplementation – extending the range of service provision within one health delivery system.

This report focuses on the revision of roles between doctors and:

• advanced practice nurses such as nurse practitioners, specialist nurses, clinical nurses and practice nurses
• physician assistants pharmacists
• allied healthcare professionals such as physical therapists (referred to as physiotherapists in this review), speech and language therapists, dietitians and paramedics.

The report finds that there is no detrimental effect of revising or extending the roles of non-medical professionals, and in some cases there is a positive effect on the quality of patient care.
Report