Supporting Nursing Associate and Assistant Practitioner apprenticeships in health and social care: a conceptual model to promote the understanding of apprenticeship provision

This article presents a conceptual model to help support health and care apprentices within clinical practice and, those working in settings where apprenticeships have been a recent innovation. Emphasis is placed upon the role of the Nursing Associate (NA) and Assistant Practitioner (AP), which are two apprenticeship routes the authors have extensive experience of supporting within the National Health Service (NHS) and private health and care sectors. The model portrays important milestones of apprenticeship provision and represents the authors joint experience of supporting trainees within the workplace. It is likely to be applicable to other apprenticeship roles within health and care settings, and provides a visual representation using a familiar instrument - the forceps. It is envisaged that this will provide a useful aide-mémoire to help support the understanding of these roles within health and care settings, or for employers considering supporting trainees via apprenticeship routes.