Is advanced nursing practice a post or a person?

While the nursing profession is making progress in clarifying its position within the healthcare setting, the recent proliferation of now nursing roles is potentially clouding the issue. Roles such as expert practitioner, advanced practitioner and specialist practitioner are not clearly defined which causes confusion both within and out with the profession. In the UK, the nursing profession's educational and national registration bodies have been struggling to develop a consensus on what these roles should entail and what part education should play in their development. The latest definitive position statement from the UKCC states that there are 'neither agreed definitions of advanced practice nor criteria against which standards can be set' (UKCC, 1997a). It is, therefore, proposed that the profession re-examines the use of the term 'advanced nursing practice' and accepts that this term describes characteristics that are not dependent on academic levels of education.