Wednesday 4 December 2024
Ashleigh Lowther is RCEM’s ACP Chair and an Advanced Clinical Practitioner specialising in Adult and Paediatric Emergency Care. In this blog she explains her important role in advocating for RCEM’s ACP members and calls on other ACPs to help further the forum’s advocacy work for the position.
“RCEM’s ACP Forum is in its second iteration and currently has 12 regional reps covering England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Our role is to represent RCEM’s ACP members across the UK. We do this by sitting on a number of committees, holding local meetings, and organising the annual RCEM ACP Conference (speaking of which, save the date 3-4 June 2025 – more details to follow!)
“One of the main College activities involving ACPs is the RCEM credentialing process, which is one of the most robust processes in the field for advanced practitioners in the UK. RCEM have been offering this process for ACP members since 2017 and we currently have 165 credentialed ACPs across the UK. It’s been a challenging time for those ACPs going through this process as we have recently moved a new curriculum, however we have already had our first ACP credentialled on this new framework.
New roles on ACP forum to be advertised
“The most pressing news to our ACP members is the new ACP forum will be selected in the coming months. We are hoping to recruit reps that match important and specific roles within RCEM. We are excited about this as we hope to recruit ACPs across the UK who can use their expertise and interests to represent their regions and explore the topics that interest them. We would encourage any ACP that would like to make a difference to apply when the posts are advertised in the coming months.
The new roles will include:
“I am proud to be a voice for RCEM’s ACP members and look forward to the good work ahead. Credentialing as an ACP is a huge achievement and ACPs are valuable members of Emergency Departments. It is vital that our voices are heard.”
If you have any questions about the new ACP forum positions, email acpchair@rcem.ac.uk.