Using the framework | NHS Education for Scotland

It is anticipated that this framework will complement the current developments within the service. It can be used as a live document to identify areas of development for healthcare practitioners being recruited to or working within these services.

This framework can be used to help ensure the team members within the services have the knowledge and skills required to provide high quality services that will meet the needs of their local population safely. The development of services is likely to emerge as health and care requirements change, therefore this framework can be used to determine what might be required both now and in the future.

The framework is designed to be used by registered nurses, managers and educators. Here are some ways that it can be used.

Practitioners

The framework can be used by registered practitioners working or aspiring to work within the service. This includes:

to benchmark current level of practice;
to continue to grow within current level of practice by identifying areas for development;
to guide professional development for newly qualified practitioner towards experienced, expert practice;
to customise a development plan linked directly to current and future roles;
to identify evidence to support appraisal review, personal development planning, or re-validation with the NMC.

By organisations and service managers

The framework can be used organisations and service managers to help develop current and emerging services. This includes:

to align to national policy and workforce legislation;
to support service design and development and redesign;
to determine knowledge, skill, and skill mix;
to inform succession planning;
to support skills maximisation, need;
to support discussions with staff e.g., career planning and professional development reviews.

By educators

The framework can be used by educators within service and educational organisations to help prepare practitioners to deliver high quality services. This includes:

to plan and deliver education and training to meet the rapidly changing needs of healthcare practitioners;
to identify opportunities for shared, inter-professional learning;
to plan programmes of education to prepare healthcare practitioners to work at different levels of the framework;
to describe how education programmes articulate with each other.

The framework also directly links to the NHS Knowledge and Skills Framework and can be used to support the annual development review cycle.

Scope of practice

Registered healthcare practitioners have a professional responsibility under the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) to keep knowledge and skills up to date, take part in appropriate and regular learning and professional development activities that aim to maintain and develop their competence and improve their performance.

Healthcare practitioners who delegate care to others must ensure the person’s knowledge, skills and competence are appropriate and safe. The resource Making Delegation Safe and Effective; A Learning Resource for Nurses, Midwives, Allied Health Professionals and Healthcare Support Workers, can be accessed on Turas Learn. The NMC and HCPC also provide guidance relating to delegation. 

Recording learning and development

Approaches to recording evidence of learning and development is a personal choice, this can be either electronically or using paper. A recommended option is using the Turas Professional Portfolio, which is available to all nurses, midwives, allied health professionals and HCSWs in Scotland including the NHS, social care, voluntary and independent sectors. This can be used to record evidence of learning for personal development, regulation, appraisal, and career progression.

More information on Turas Professional Portfolio:

Nurses - Nursing and Midwifery Professional Portfolio

It may be helpful to complete the development needs analysis tool (DNAT) which can be found on the NMAHP development framework webpage.

The DNAT is designed to help staff reflect on their current job role and to identify areas where they may benefit from further training, education and development to enhance or develop their role. The Knowledge, Skills and Behaviours (KSBs) in the DNAT are arranged under the 4 Pillars of Practice.

Support and supervision

It is important to know the skills and competence of all members in a team, so that tasks can be delegated appropriately and safely to the right person. Regular appraisal meetings or personal development reviews will help support the development of individuals. All healthcare professionals need to be aware of the limits of their own competence and have the confidence to say “no” if asked to carry out a task out with their competence, or that they feel is inappropriate or unsafe. Supervision and feedback must be provided appropriate to the task being delegated and staff should adhere to their professional of code of conduct.