Investigating Advanced Practice for People With Intellectual Disability and Autism: A Mixed Methods Study

Little is known about the advanced practice contribution health professionals make when working with People with Intellectual Disability and Autism. This paper shares the findings from a study investigating the delivery and impact of two university-led online postgraduate certificates. These programmes specifically focused on preparing health professionals to practice at an advanced level, with people with intellectual disability and autism across the lifespan.

The aim was to evaluate the opportunities and challenges the programmes provided, reviewing the online delivery capacity and its usefulness for preparing this group of health professionals at an advanced level across two cohorts of learners.

A concurrent mixed methods approach was adopted, collating descriptive and qualitative data virtually between February 2023 and January 2024. Adults with intellectual disability and autism were involved in the panel deciding the outcome of the research tender, as steering group members and as members of a national workforce advisory panel. No computerised software was used for the data analysis.

Observations from minimal descriptive data, virtual focus group, nine one-to-one interviews, text-based and a jam-board data revealed online pedagogical decisions through multi-professional action learning sets. This supported enhanced practice confidence, enquiry-based practice and inter-professional capability.

Policy and decision makers should invest in more advanced practice programmes in this field, as they strengthen the care contribution for people with intellectual disabilities and autism.

Advanced practice learning can raise both practice confidence levels and improve opportunities for evidence-based service change for a group of people with complex needs.

Mixed Methods Reporting in Rehabilitation Health Science.