Establishing Nurse Practitioner Owned/Run Practices

A loss of primary care providers from rural areas of America is leaving a large proportion of the population with limited access to healthcare providers. Twenty-five percent of the U.S. population lives in less affluent rural areas where only ten percent of physicians work. The people in these areas need primary care providers that offer quality care at an affordable price. New models of innovative, interprofessional nursing practice can bridge this gap. The purpose of this presentation is to provide a curriculum that focuses on preparing NPs to develop and implement nurse owned/run practices.   Attendees of this presentation will be able to: 1) provide curricular content and experiential activities to prepare DNP/NP students for the process of establishing a Nurse Practitioner Owned /Run community practice and 2) mentor students as they develop a plan for implementing a nurse practitioner owned/run clinic or program.  The presentation will include DNP/NP curricular content and experiential activities used to establish such a clinic.  Focus will be on: 1) structuring a clinic or program within the rules, regulations, and laws that govern NP practice and business, 2) developing a general business plan, 3) establishing interprofessional collaborations, 4) planning for financial issues, and 5) using technology to improve access to needed professional resources.  The presenter is an FNP and postmasters DNP student that used content from her DNP program to develop and open a Nurse Practitioner Owned/Run clinic in a rural town where 75% of the citizens are unemployed.   Examples of important DNP/NP program experiential activities to be presented are: 1) a required rotation in telehealth that provided an understanding of how to use telehealth to reach resources from a university medical center 100s of miles away, 2) a workshop that provided a framework for using social media and EHR to connect with physician support and specialists, and 3) a project assessing the community in order to identify the need, desire, and potential barriers for the clinic. Additional activities beneficial to students will also be discussed.  The presenter will use her NP Owned/Run clinic as an example of successful planning for practice implementation.