Advancing professional health care practice and the issue of accountability

This article is based upon a presentation given at the at 2016 Conference of the European Wound Management Association in Bremen Germany on 13th May 2016. The aim of this article is to examine how health care practitioners can advance their practice. There are a number of factors that relate to advancing practice and in order to explore this issue this article will consider traditional roles of health care practitioners together with newer and emerging roles; the limitations on professional practice; competence and how this relates to the practice of the health care practitioner and the advancement of their practice; and the nature of accountability. The article adopts a United Kingdom perspective, using nursing as a form of case study approach, but the broad theoretical, legal and regulatory perspectives presented are generally applicable across all jurisdictions. The article will conclude with a consideration of important guidance for those health care practitioners wishing to advance their practice