Claire Bryant, Advanced Nurse Practitioner (ANP)
Job title, role and responsibilities
I work as a Clinical Care Coordinator (CCC) in a GP surgery in Borth, a rural village and seaside resort in Ceredigion, Mid Wales. The community and surrounding area have a high elderly population, as well as a rural farming population and seasonal visitors. The community is well served with health, social care and third sector organisations. The CCC role was established within the primary care setting to transform the way that we work together to provide integrated person-centred care in the community.
One of the main responsibilities of the CCC role is to lead and facilitate weekly Multi-Agency Team (MAT) meetings, with the key focus of prevention and proactive working. Having the confidence and competence to challenge where appropriate, ask the right people the right questions and facilitate the discussions in a meaningful and succinct way is essential for the role. To deliver this successfully requires clinical experience, knowledge and skills at an advanced level.
What does the role entail?
The employment of a Clinical Care Coordinator in primary care with dedicated time to facilitate the MAT meetings is an essential enabler to changing the way we work in a person-centred way. The MAT flourished as the relationships developed between the team members. A ‘can do’ attitude focussing on person-centred care by team members was an essential ingredient to success.
The role of CCC entails a diversity of actions, skills, knowledge and practices that can be difficult to put into words – I just do it! Some key words and phrases I would use to help describe the role include:
- Building of relationships
- Clinical competence
- Organisation
- Contact and communication with patients and their relatives (either in person or virtually!)
- Contact and communication with colleagues across health, social care, the third sector, working environments (secondary care, community care, primary care) and specialities (e.g., palliative care)
- Shared and compassionate leadership
- Flexibility and time management
The culture of working practices and organisations can create barriers. Duplicative systems and processes with silo working across organisations and professions continue to be significant challenges. Utilising already established networks and having local knowledge has been helpful to establish the role effectively and efficiently.
Reflections
Reflecting on the last year in this role has enabled me to see the great benefits of the CCC role based in primary care. We have been able to demonstrate improved outcomes for the local population, working in a more prudent way, enabling the delivery of person-centred high-quality care. I recognise much of my experience, knowledge, skills and already established relationships have been easily transferred to the primary care setting. Arguably, these have been fundamental to the success of this new role.
