Primary Care Nurse Practitioner Residency (PC-NPR) Program

Built in 1942, The Marion VA Health Care System is a Joint Commission accredited facility with 45 acute care beds (which include five Intensive Care Unit Beds), a 54-bed Community Living Center (CLC), a 20-bed Residential Rehabilitative Treatment Program (RRTP) and a free-standing Center for Behavioral Health located in Marion, Illinois.

We offer a full continuum of care in both inpatient and outpatient such as surgery (inpatient and outpatient), primary care (including home-based primary care services), medical/specialty subspecialty services, behavioral medicine services (including mental health intensive care management), physical medicine and rehabilitation, women’s health services, long and short-term care, chaplain services, clinical nutrition/dietetics services, and social work services.

Specialty services include (but not limited to) oncology, hematology, cardiology (including cardiac catherization and pacemaker implantations), urology, orthopedics, pulmonology, podiatry, ophthalmology, optometry, audiology, dermatology, gynecology, gastroenterology, otolaryngology, nephrology, respiratory therapy, speech pathology, occupational therapy, wound care, pain management, spinal cord injury (SCI), visually impaired services, palliative care, and dentistry.

The Marion VA Health Care System also operates the Evansville Health Care center in Evansville IN and
ten Community Based Outpatient Clinics (CBOCs) across three states (IL, IN, and KY).

The Primary Care Nurse Practitioner Residency Program (PC-NPR) at the Marion Veterans Affairs Health Care System (MVAHCS) welcomed its first cohort in August 2021. This program was made possible through support from the Office of Academic Affiliations (OAA), facility leadership, and our school affiliations. The nurse practitioner resident is a newly graduated NP student within the last 12 months. The NP resident participates in a 12-month trainee program, working under the guidance of seasoned NP preceptors in a primary care outpatient clinic. As a nurse practitioner resident you will participate in a comprehensive plan of study incorporating both didactic and direct patient care clinical experiences with the focus of transitioning from a novice to competent nurse practitioner who is skilled in caring for Veterans and their families. Admission occurs annually in August. The curriculum of the 12-month residency program is based upon the Commission on Collegiate Nurse Education (CCNE) standards for entry to practice nurse residency programs and is centered on leadership, patient outcomes, and professional role development.  The curriculum is also designed to reflect a progression from care of the general, non-acutely ill patient, to the more complex and chronically ill or specialty patient populations.  Residents participate in weekly didactic sessions and coursework to support their professional role transition, safe care delivery, advancement in critical thinking, and development of evidenced-based clinical care. By completing this residency, the resident will gain experience and confidence to practice independently in primary care management of patients.

 PC-NPR Mission:

The residency program vision is to honor America's Veterans by providing exceptional health care with improves their health and wellbeing. The vision is to be a patient-centered, integrated health care organization for Veterans that provides excellent health care.

The purpose of the PC-NPR is to bridge education and professional advanced nursing practice through building on essentials learned in the academic educational setting. With increasing the residents’ knowledge, it will strengthen their confidence in practice and lead to competent autonomy in direct patient care. 

The PC-NPR is an innovative, evidenced-based education training experience designed to develop competent, confident, and practice ready nurse practitioners (NP) equipped with the knowledge and skills to address the unique needs of our nations Veterans and improve access to care. 

The residency program vision is to honor America’s veterans by providing exceptional health care which improves their health and well-being. The vision is to be a patient-centered, integrated health care organization for Veterans that provides excellent health care. Accomplished through process improvements, quality improvement, and continuing nursing education. Building a culture and organization where people choose to work. The PC-NPR helps fulfill this mission and vision in the clinical learning and practice environment by providing a safe, supervised transition with a supervising nurse practitioner and mentor.  

The mission of the MVAHCS PC-NPR is to enhance the scientific knowledge, clinical expertise, and professionalism of novice NPs by providing a safe, mentored transition of newly licensed and board-certified nurse practitioner practitioners working in primary care setting into competent and confident professionals providing excellent care to patients. 

Residency Purpose 

The purpose of the PC-NPR is to bridge education and professional advanced nursing practice through building on essentials learned in the academic educational setting. With increasing the residents' knowledge, it will strengthen their confidence in practice and lead to competent autonomy in direct patient care. The PC-NPR is an innovative, evidence based education training experience designed to develop competent, confident , and practice ready Nurse Practitioners (NP) equipped with knowledge and skills to address the unique needs of our nations Veterans and improve access to care. The residency program vision is to honor America's Veterans by providing exceptional health care with improves their health and well being. The vision is to be a patient-centered, integrated health care organization for Veterans that provides excellent health care. Accomplished through  process improvements, quality improvement, and continuing nursing education. Building a culture and organization where people choose to work. The PC-NPR helps fulfill this mission and vision in the clinical learning and practice environment by providing a safe, supervised transition with a supervising nurse practitioner and mentor. The mission of the PC-NPR is to enhance the scientific knowledge, clinical expertise , and professionalism of novice NPs by providing a safe, mentored transition of newly licensed and board certified nurse practitioners working in Primary Care setting into competent and confident professionals providing excellent care to patients.

Program Goals 

The goals of the program are to increase confidence, competence, and retention of new NPs and enhance their utilization of scientific evidence to support nursing practice. Program objectives include:

1. Develop competent practice-ready nurse practitioners with the knowledge and skills to address the complex needs of our nation’s Veterans.
2. Improve confidence in practice and role transition of nurse practitioners through clinical experiences, inter-professional collaboration, and professional development.
3. Facilitate the utilization of scientific evidence to support advanced nursing practice.
4. Improve access to quality care by expanding the workforce with practice-ready nurse practitioners.

Additional, aim of the residency program are to support residents to:

1. Transition from entry-level, advanced beginner nurse to competent professional nurse who provides safe, quality evidence-based care (levels defined by Benner’s “Novice to Expert” theory 1984).
2. Develop effective decision-making skills related to clinical judgement and performance.
3. Develop clinical leadership skills at the point of patient care.
4. Formulate an individual career plan that promotes a long commitment to professional nursing.
5. Successful completion of the program and remain within the VA system.
6. Produce and retain skilled, proficient, and effective PC-NPR faculty, preceptors, and mentors.

Program Outcomes 

1. The program will provide new NPs with a year-long training during their first year of practice in the primary care clinical area.
   1. 50% of residents will complete the year-long program.
2. NP residents will demonstrate increased confidence in providing safe and effective advanced nursing care.
   1. Mean score for each of the domains of practice measured by the Confidence in Practice Scale will increase from month 1 to 12 months.
3. NP residents will demonstrate enhanced utilization of scientific evidence to support advanced nursing practice.
   1. Completion of an evidence-based practice project and dissemination of findings through formal presentation within MVAHCS.
4. NP residents will demonstrate achievement of essential advanced nursing practice competencies.
   1. Resident (s) will demonstrate an increase of Skill Level in Competencies from month 1 to month 12 for practice as measured by faculty assessment on the Nurse Practitioner Residency Competency Assessment (NPRCA) tool.
5. The program will enhance recruitment and retention of NP resident (s) in the VA workforce in accordance with its available positions.
   1. 50% of residents will apply for employment as NP upon completion of residency.
   2. 50% of residents will be employed 1 year after hire.

s

• Enhance your nursing clinical and leadership skills.
• Experience a Veteran-centric learning and practice environment.
• Increase your confidence in providing competent nursing care to complex patients in a variety of settings that may include acute/critical care, medical-surgical services, outpatient services, mental health, rehab/long term care, geriatrics, spinal cord injury, or other specialty areas.
• Paid position
• Accrue sick and annual leave
• 11 paid Federal Holidays
• Tour of Duty:  Monday through Friday, typically 8 hr. shifts (no nights, holidays, or weekends unless special circumstances)
• Health benefits offered
• Hiring preference for open positions within the facility with successful completion of the program

The NP resident must meet the following criteria for participation in the program:

• U.S. Citizenship.
• Be a recent graduate (within 12 months) of a master’s, post-master’s certificate, or doctoral level NP program accredited by CCNE and ACEN.
• Be serving in their first NP role in same program specialty area as the program focus.
• Possess a current board certification in the same program specialty area as the program’s focus: PC-NPR: Family NP board certification
• Possess a current, full active and unrestrictive registration as a graduate professional nurse AND nurse practitioner in a state, commonwealth, or territory of the United States, or the District of Columbia, prior to the start of the NPR program. NP residency candidate(s) may request a 90-day waiver by way of PD to OAA with written assurance that they will obtain licensure and/or board certification within 90 days from the start of the program.
• Proficient in written and spoken English.
• Pass a background/security investigation as required by the Veterans Health Administration.
• Meet all vaccination requirements of the healthcare facility.
• Acknowledge and agree to random drug testing that may occur during the training year.
• Evidence or self-certification that they are physically and mentally fit to perform the essential functions of the training program.
• Complete interview
• Meet the TQCVL criteria that includes these listed requirements:
• personal identity and credentials verification, (b) educational credentials verification, licensure verification, (c) National Practitioner Data Bank (NPDB) verification, (d) List of Excluded Individuals and Entities (LEIE) verification, (e ) health requirements and proof of vaccination verification and TB screen, and (f) when applicable selective service verification.
• Additional information on Eligibility to be a VA Health Professions Trainee can be found here: Am I Eligible? Checklist for VA HPTs

Application Submission

Send resume and/or any questions to:

Dr. Jamie Mabry DNP, MSN, APRN, FNP-BC

OAA sponsored NP Residency Primary Care (NPR-PC) Program Director

jamie.mabry@va.gov