Evaluating a First-Year Veterans Affairs Nurse Practitioner Residency Program: Analysis for Change

Background: The Veteran Affairs Portland Healthcare System (VAPORHCS) is experiencing a shortage of primary care physicians. To help meet this demand for primary care providers in outpatient clinics, VAPORHCS turned to nurse practitioners (NPs). A primary care nurse practitioner residency (PC-NPR) program was developed to support novice NP’s transition to practice. Purpose: To describe the development of evaluation tools and an evaluation of the effectiveness and efficiency of the PC-NPR program’s curriculum in supporting NP residents’ progression through the program and transition to practice utilizing accreditation standards. Methods: The development of evaluation tools using a combined approach guided by Meleis’ Transition Theory and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Program Evaluation Framework. Evaluation tools included a 12-item curriculum questionnaire developed from national accreditation pre-publication standards and a focus group interview. Results: There was a 54% (n=13) response rate. The questionnaire had some negative responses to three statements. The remaining responses were positive. The two main themes of the focus group were transition to practice support and curricular improvement. Conclusion: This evaluation contributed to a comprehensive program evaluation. Results are being used to make timely improvements to the program objectives and curriculum in preparation for seeking the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education national accreditation

Innovative Practice in Advancement of Academic Nurse Educator Careers: Developing Scholarship From Program Grants.

We describe an innovative practice in advancing careers of academic nurse educators: demonstrating scholarly productivity from program grants. Scholarly productivity is often narrowly defined, especially in research-intensive institutions. The expectation may be a career trajectory based on the traditional scholarship of discovery. However, nurse educators, especially at the associate and full professor ranks, are often involved in leadership activities that include writing and managing program grants. We encourage the academy to value and support the development of program grants that include significant scholarly components, and we offer exemplars of associate and full professor scholarship derived from these projects

Interactive CO-Learning for Research Engagement and Education (I-COREE) Curriculum to Build Capacity Between Community Partners and Academic Researchers

The voice of diverse communities continues to be minimal in academic research. Few models exist for education and training of new research topics and terminology and building partnership capacity in community-engaged research. Little is known about integrative education and training when building participatory research partnerships for sustainability and developing trust and rapport. Community partners at an Asian community-based health and social services center in a large metropolitan area wanted to explore the cultural context of a health-assistive smart home that monitors and auto-alerts with changes in health. With historical and recent rising trends in culturally insensitive research in several diverse communities, the concept of technology-enabled monitoring in the privacy of one’s home brings uncertainty. Academic nurse researchers and community partners co-created a culturally safe integrative education and training curriculum, the Interactive CO-learning for Research Engagement and Education (I-COREE). The purpose was to design, implement, and evaluate the curriculum to respond to the community partners’ needs to create a culturally safe space through an integrative education and training to facilitate building partnership capacity for research engagement including developing trust and rapport and addressing uncertainties in health-assistive technologies. Popular education tenets informed the curriculum. Twelve academic and community partners participated, four were team teachers who co-led the session. Implementation of the experiential, multimodal co-learning activities were conducted within a half-day. The curriculum evaluation indicated it helped bridge critical conversations about partners’ fears of the unknown, approach culturally sensitive topics safely, and trust and rapport. Key elements may be translatable to other partnerships