Healthcare staff striving to further their knowledge and skills celebrated by LJMU

Pictured: LJMU’s Advanced Practice Team with the Health Education Advancing Practice Faculty for the Northwest region

More than 150 healthcare professionals from across the country were celebrated at a conference hosted by LJMU that championed advanced clinical practice.

The annual conference reflected on the challenges of the past two years and the impact of the pandemic, while looking ahead through the theme of ‘lifting as we climb’ to encourage advanced practitioners to pledge, contribute, nurture, inspire and drive forward the future of advanced clinical practice.

Diverse and inclusive workforce

Joanne Fisher, Senior Lecturer in Advanced Clinical Practice at the School of Nursing and Allied Health, said: “The event was a huge team effort and it was a pleasure to see advanced practitioners, students, educators and our stakeholders coming together to celebrate advanced practice and recognise the leadership responsibilities we all have, to ensure a diverse and inclusive workforce.”

Discussions throughout the day explored equality and diversity within advanced practice and saw guest speakers address the delegation including Deepak Agnihotri, Advanced Practitioner and Training Programme Director for Heath Education England Northwest Regional Advancing Practice Faculty, who gave a keynote speech on diversity within the field.

Other speakers included Annabella Gloster, Health Education England’s Northwest Advancing Practice Faculty Lead, who gave a personal account of her career journey, and Emma Davey, LJMU Advanced Practice Student and Clinical Nurse Specialist in Palliative Care, who gave an impassioned speech reflecting on how advanced level practice has made an enormous difference to the patients in her care.

A  ‘truly inspirational conference’

Ellie Gibbs, a Trainee Advanced Clinical Practitioner from Worcester Health and Care NHS Trust, expressed her thanks for what she described as a ‘truly inspirational conference’. She said: “I've been thinking about the speakers and what I learned from the day. I feel so motivated to work harder and share more with my colleagues and wanted to let you know what an impact it had on me and my ACP vision.”

A series of masterclasses were also hosted throughout the day including a therapy dog session, a presentation about the development of endoscopist workforce and moving into academia from clinical practice. Professor Ian Jones facilitated a session on publication and Dr Julie-Ann Hayes shared news of a new doctoral level study in advanced practice at LJMU.

Find out more about the Faculty of Health at LJMU.