Evaluation of the NHS Education for Scotland Advanced Practice Succession Planning Development Pathway

This study used a mixed methods responsive evaluation design to concurrently evaluate the impact of the pilot advanced practice succession planning development pathway on individuals’ learning, development of advanced practice attributes, service delivery/development and patient outcomes. Direct comparison of the various elements of the pathway demonstrates that the Developmental Needs Assessment Tool was found to be very helpful by the majority of participants, closely followed by critical companion support; action learning sets produced a more varied response, with the majority of participants reporting this process as only ‘somewhat effective’. In identifying the most and least helpful aspects of the pathway, appreciation of NES funding, which was typically used for accredited study, and the value placed on an effective critical companion were ranked most highly, with the considerable challenges of managing time constraints and the disadvantages of on-line action learning sets being highlighted as the top two least helpful factors. Findings strongly endorse the flexible nature and valuable contribution of this