NONPF 39th Annual Meeting
Objective: To illustrate the transformative experiences of post graduate nurse practitioners immersed in the interprofessional center of excellence fellowship.
In 2008, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Institute of Medicine launched a two-year initiative to assess the changing needs of the nursing profession. In response to this initiative, the Veterans Health Administration of this state pioneered the first adult interprofessional Nurse Practitioner Fellowship to address the gap in training for nurse practitioners post graduation. The mission of the Center of Excellence in Primary Care Education (COE) NP Fellowship is to provide health care professionals with transformative training producing leaders who can deliver outstanding patient-centered care using the skills necessary to succeed in today’s healthcare system. Historically, physicians have trained through structured post graduate residency programs. They are thus afforded the opportunity to build on existing knowledge and basic clinical skills, while Nurse Practitioners are expected to step out into a community ready to practice without any post graduate clinical training. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to describe the experience of new nurse practitioner graduate fellows during their one year in the Veterans Health Administration Interprofessional Center of Excellence in Primary Care Education adult nurse practitioner fellowship. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with NP Fellows at three points during their training year and analyzed for common experiences and insights. Four resultant themes emerged bridging into professional practice, appreciation of roles, interprofessional obligation, and mentorship. The findings of the study strongly suggest that there is a need for nurse practitioner fellowship programs post graduation. This advanced preparation will facilitate new graduates to advance their clinical skills and build on their foundation of knowledge through an interdisciplinary approach in order to deliver high quality care.
