(P26) Implementation of a Novice Nurse Practitioner Geriatric Fellowship Program

Objective/Aim: Novice nurse practitioners (NP) often report anxiety, insecurity, exhaustion, and feelings of professional isolation during their transition to practice period. This leads to role dissatisfaction, suboptimal performance, and potential burnout. With the current shortage of primary care providers, and patients with more high risk, complex chronic disease states, it is crucial to have post-graduate programs to support novice NPs transition to practice. The Institute of Medicine’s The Future of Nursing report supports the implementation of NP fellowship programs. These programs assist the novice NP transition to confident, competent healthcare providers (HCP). NPs who completed a post-graduate program report improved clinical skills, enhanced retention, and increased professional satisfaction from mentorship and collaboration with other experienced HCPs. LiveWell Choice offers a 9-month novice NP geraitric-centric fellowship program structured to develop and strengthen proficiencies while increasing competence and confidence alongside an interdisciplinary team of well-rounded HCP's. The purpose of thie project was to evaluate a pilot novice NP geriatric-centric transition to practice felloship program for the long-term care environment.

Design/Methodology: The program contains 3 different phases. The first phase, which encompasses the first 12 weeks include weekly 1:1 meeting with educator/mentor, Geriatric based curriculum (approximately 5 contact hours/week), case study review, chart reviews and "check-in's" for emotional support. The NP at this time has 33% of a typical case load. The second and third phase consist biweekly meetings with the mentor/educator, case reviews, chart reviews, NP presentation and the start of a quality improvement activity to be completed by the end of the 2nd year of employment. A prospective, descriptive design utilizing a convenience sample of novice NPs during a pilot study of a geriatric-centric novice NP fellowship program. Outcome measures included evaluation of self-reported clinical skills including assessment and management of complex geriatric syndromes, documentation, professional satisfaction, and self-reported confidence in overall job performance over the initial 6-month period of the 9-month program.

Results: There were five participants (N = 5, 100%). There was an increase in self-reported clinical skills including assessment and management of complex geriatric syndromes. Documentation skills, and self-reported professional satisfaction. The self-reported confidence in overall job performance was also significantly increased over the initial 6-month period of the 9-month program.

Conclusion/

Discussion: After the initial 6-month evaluation, the novice NP may benefit from a geriatric-centric NP fellowship program in the LTC setting. Further evaluation must continue to monitor the NP upon completion of the 9-month fellowship program then at annual intervals for the next 5 years.