Developing and sustaining specialist and advanced practice roles in nursing and midwifery: A discourse on enablers and barriers.

This discursive paper synthesises empirical evidence and expert professional opinion on the factors that enable or hinder the development and sustainability of specialist and advanced practice roles. Providing a critical appraisal of current knowledge, it provides a reference source for disciplinary debate and policy development regarding the nursing and midwifery resource and informs clinicians of the myriad issues that can impact on their capacity to expand their scope of practice.