Developing Advanced Practice: Face the Issues, Find the Solutions

Successful human resource innovation in the cancer care sector must be compatible with the key objectives of decreasing wait times, increasing access and improving the health of our citizens. Implementing these kinds of innovations, including new models of care, is difficult in this complex environment. In the last two decades, advanced practice has seen tremendous interest and much has been written about it in recent years. Many of the themes documented in this literature occur consistently across jurisdictions and are relevant to the recent investigation of advanced practice roles for radiation therapists in Ontario.

When examining the potential implementation of any new role or model of patient care delivery, it is incumbent upon the investigators to familiarize themselves with these common issues and to develop strategies for dealing with them. Only through meticulous planning for effective communication and rigourous data collection can project managers garner stakeholder support and reduce professional territorialism, both of which need to be addressed for successful implementation of any new model of care.

This paper will outline the key activities that need to be carried out for the development of potential advanced practice roles, the key challenges and issues that surface when trying to address these activities, and outline some key strategies for overcoming them as the study of advanced practice moves ahead.