Consensus on an Australian Nurse practitioner specialty framework using Delphi methodology: results from the CLLEVER...

Area of Science:

• Nursing
• Healthcare Management
• Professional Development

Background:

• The Australian nurse practitioner profession has expanded significantly since 1998, with over 1300 practitioners across diverse specialties.
• A prior framework of nurse practitioner metaspecialties was proposed to enhance specialist clinical education.

Purpose of the Study:

• To establish profession-wide consensus on an Australian nurse practitioner specialty framework.
• To validate proposed nurse practitioner metaspecialties.

Main Methods:

• A three-round online modified Delphi method was utilized.
• Purposive and snowball sampling recruited 966 nurse practitioners with over 12 months of experience.
• Data analysis involved descriptive statistics, content analysis, Content Validity Index, and McNemar's Test for Change.

Main Results:

• High consensus was achieved on four nurse practitioner metaspecialties: Emergency and acute care, primary health care, child and family health care, and mental health care.
• Two proposed metaspecialties did not reach consensus and require further investigation.
• One-fifth of the eligible nurse practitioner population participated in the study.

Conclusions:

• A consensus-based Australian nurse practitioner metaspecialty framework was developed, promoting professional acceptance.
• The Delphi method is suitable for consensus-building in smaller nurse practitioner populations.
• Continued research is necessary to adapt the framework as the profession evolves.