Advanced practice nursing is a higher level of clinical practice that registered nurses can progress into. They're trained to assess, diagnose, and in many cases even prescribe treatment, providing expert care that complements the work of doctors. Over the past few decades, advanced practice nursing has grown into an incredibly important part of modern healthcare, helping ease the burden on overstretched NHS services.
As a result, for the ambitious nurse, becoming an advanced practice nurse is one of the best career steps available. Why? Well, not only does it increase your overall earning potential, but it also gives you far more freedom in how you work. Keep reading below to find out more about advanced practice nursing, including salary, types of roles, and more.
| Role | What They Do | Typical NHS Band & Salary (2025) |
|---|---|---|
| Advanced Nurse Practitioner (ANP) | Works directly with patients. Can assess, diagnose, order tests, and prescribe treatment in GP surgeries, hospitals, and urgent care. | Band 7–8a: £48,800 – £62,700 |
| Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) | Focuses on one condition or area (like oncology, diabetes, or cardiology). Runs clinics, supports patients, and gives expert advice to staff. | Band 7–8a: £47,800 – £62,700 |
| Nurse Consultant | A senior role that mixes patient care with leadership, teaching, and research. Often leads services and develops new ways of working. | Band 8b–9: £64,500 – £125,600 |
| Surgical First Assistant (SFA) | Works side by side with surgeons in theatre. Assists during operations, handles instruments, and helps keep patients safe before, during, and after surgery. | Band 7–8a: £47,800 – £62,700 |
What Does An Advanced Practice Nurse Do?
In the UK, an advanced practice nurse is essentially a highly trained professional who has stepped beyond the normal scope of routine medical nursing care. In places like GP practices, urgent care, and hospital wards, they'll often be the first people patients are assigned to before seeing a doctor.
What Tasks Do Advanced Practice Nurses Carry Out?
What an advanced practice nurse does really depends on where they're based. For example, in a GP surgery, they might spend time doing things like attending appointments, checking symptoms, and giving patients advice about managing their ongoing symptoms.
Meanwhile, their role in a hospital may consist of helping with emergency cases or running clinics centred around extremely specific health issues.
What Sort of Skills Do You Need For Advanced Practice Nursing?
If you want to be a successful advanced practice nurse, you'll need to have the right set of skills for the job first. Below, we've outlined several of the most important ones that employers will look out for and that will also help you handle the demands of the job.
- Communication: Being able to clearly and honestly communicate with patients, families, and junior pediatric or mental health nurses is a must.
- Leadership: Without good leadership skills, you'll struggle to manage your team and make an impact beyond your own patients.
- Teaching: As mentioned, part of your role will include mentoring new members of the nursing staff. Due to this, you'll need to be a good teacher who's both patient and supportive.
- Adaptability: Every nurse needs to be adaptable, regardless of level. This is doubly true for advanced practice nurses who have even more responsibilities to take care of.
- Organisation: Your organisation skills must be spot on too, as this will help you to balance a demanding caseload without letting standards slip.
- Compassion: No matter how advanced the role, the values of nursing remain the same - treating patients with both empathy and respect.
What Are the Different Types of Advanced Practice Nursing?
Advanced practice nursing in the UK isn't actually a singular job but instead a level of practice that nurses can progress into once they've gained the right experience and training in their field of nursing (be it mental health nursing or medical nursing, for instance). In this section, we'll explore the main roles that fall under this category.
Advanced practice in the UK is built around four key pillars:
The first is clinical practice, where nurses use advanced skills to assess, diagnose, and manage care.
Leadership is equally important, giving practitioners the chance to guide teams and improve services.
Education also forms another pillar, as advanced nurses support the learning and development of others. Finally, research underpins the role, ensuring care is based on evidence and helping shape the future of healthcare.
Advanced Nurse Practitioner (ANP)
Advanced Nurse Practitioners are registered nurses who have completed a master's degree in advanced practice. They can often be found in GP surgeries, community clinics, and hospital outpatient departments and neonatal wards alike.
ANPs often run their own clinics too, providing assessments, diagnoses, and ongoing management of various conditions ranging from diabetes to paediatrics. Most ANP posts are set somewhere around Band 7 on the NHS pay scale.
Advanced Clinical Practitioner (ACP)
Simply put, an Advanced Clinical Practitioner (ACP) is the formal NHS job title for any registered healthcare professional who has trained to work at the advanced practice level. Unlike the Advanced Nurse Practitioner (ANP), which applies only to nurses, the ACP role is multi-professional.
Essentially, this means other healthcare workers like paramedics, physiotherapists, and pharmacists can also progress into advanced clinical roles as well. Looking for an ACP post? Most of them are graded at Band 7 or Band 8a.
Nurse Consultant
Last on the list and at the very top of advanced practice nursing is the Nurse Consultant. More often than not, they're usually specialists in one area (such as cancer care, emergency medicine, or cardiology) and take the lead when it comes to how those services are delivered.
Because of their mix of expertise and leadership, most Nurse consultants usually sit at the higher end of the NHS pay bands between Band 8a and Band 8c.
Nurse Consultant posts are among the rarest in the NHS. When the role was first introduced in the early 2000s, only a few hundred were created, and even today, they make up less than half a percent of the nursing workforce in England.
Training and Qualifications for Advanced Practice Nursing
Becoming an advanced practice nurse isn't something that happens quickly. It's the type of career path you'll need to work towards over a long stretch of time, with years of frontline experience required on top of a bunch of postgraduate study and workplace-based training. Let's take a look at the steps required below.
Step 1 - Become a Registered Nurse
Every advanced practice journey starts with qualifying as a nurse. After completing your nursing degree, you’ll register with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). This gives you the licence to practise as a registered nurse in the UK
Step 2 - Gain Clinical Experience (Years 1 to 5)
Before moving on to more advanced roles, most nurses spend at least a few years working in areas like A&E or oncology in order to gain enough firsthand experience and confidence in their nursing abilities to move forward
Step 3 - Gain Your Master's in Advanced Clinical Practice (Years 3 to 7)
When you’re ready, the next step is usually a Master’s degree in Advanced Clinical Practice (MSc ACP). These courses typically last three years part-time alongside your job. They cover advanced assessment, diagnostics, prescribing, leadership, and even research skills -everything needed to work more autonomously
Step 4 - Obtain your Independent Prescribing Qualification (V300)
Most advanced practice nurses will also choose to complete their v300 prescribing course as well, either as part of their MSc or as an additional module. This allows them to prescribe medicines to patients.
Step 5 - Build Your Portfolio
Academic study is only one piece of the puzzle. You'll also have to compile a portfolio of evidence that proves you can deliver across the four pillars of practice mentioned previously: clinical practice, leadership, education, and research. Once finished, it will be assessed and signed off by senior clinicians, proving you're fine to work safely at the advanced level.
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