The Academy Board of Specialty
Advanced practice nurses work both independently and in collaboration with other health care professionals to provide a wide range of advanced assessment and specialized interventions in response to the actual and potential health needs of the individual, group or family. Their practice encompasses the continuum of health promotion and maintenance, disease prevention and management. Advanced nursing practice will continue to evolve in response to changing societal and health care needs.
In view of the broad scope of advanced nursing practice, the Academy of Nursing has categorized nine nursing specialties for advanced practice using a flexible composite system comprising client characteristics, body systems involved, acuteness of the clinical problems and position on the healthcare continuum. This will not only help advanced practice nurses to better focus on their areas of practice, but also facilitate continuing development of the nursing profession. Each nursing specialty will form its own Academy College. The Academy Colleges will be contained within the Academy, all of which run their own structured training programs. The nine Academy Colleges are:
- Medical/surgical care
- Men/women's health
- Child and adolescent health
- Mental health
- Public/community health
- Critical care
- Gerontological health
- Nursing Management
- Complementary/alternative Medicine
The number of Colleges will be updated as more nursing specialties developed. Table 1 outlines the structure of the HKAN.
Table 1: Proposed structure of the Hong Kong Academy of Nursing