Nurse practitioner residency program

The mission of the Nurse Practitioner Residency program is to bridge education and practice while transitioning novice nurse practitioners into safe, competent professionals to care for our nation's Veterans.

The overarching goals of our NP Residency programs are to:

• Develop competent practice-ready nurse practitioners with the knowledge and skills to address the complex needs of our nation’s Veterans.
 

• Improve confidence in practice and role transition of nurse practitioners through clinical experiences, interprofessional collaboration, and professional development.
 

• Facilitate the utilization of scientific evidence to support advanced nursing practice.
 

• Improve access to quality care by expanding the workforce with practice-ready nurse practitioners.

The Intent of the nurse practitioner residency program is to provide an intensive and innovative clinical experience supplemented by professional development activities to facilitate transition to practice for nurse practitioners. The program's expected outcomes include: (1) residents demonstrating achievement of essential advanced nursing practice competencies, (2) residents demonstrating  improved confidence in role transition into professional practice while providing safe and effective patient care, (3) residents demonstrating knowledge of scientific inquiry to support advanced nursing practice, and (4) enhancing the recruitment and retention of newly hired graduate nurse practitioners in the workforce.

Eligible candidates for Residency must be:

• A recent graduate (within 12 months of program's start date) of master’s or doctoral level nurse practitioner program accredited by the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing (ACEN) or The Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE).
• Minimum of 3.0 GPA
• Serving in their first nurse practitioner role for the applicable residency track.
• Citizen of the United States.

Hold current board certification in the same specialty area as the residency track focus:

• Must hold either an Adult-Gerontological or Family Nurse Practitioner board certification for the Primary Care NP Track.
• Must Hold Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner board certification for the Mental Health NP Track.
• Current, full, active, and unrestricted registration as a 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.

Note: Although the admission priority must be given to trainees who possess licensure and board certification at the time of program entry, the OAA Nursing Education Director may grant a “90-day grace period” to highly-qualified NP residency candidate(s) whose licensure and board certification have been delayed. Candidates must provide written assurance that they will obtain licensure and board certification within 90 days from the start of the program. If a Nurse Practitioner resident fails to meet board certification or licensure requirement within the 90 days since the start of the program, the trainee will be terminated from the program.

• Salary is funded by the VA Office of Academic Affiliations (OAA) and rates may increase depending on the current year allocation rate.

Other benefits include:

• Government health care medical, vision, & dental plans
• Federal paid holidays
• Accrued annual and sick leave
• No call or weekend shifts
• 100% protected learning time
• Other available VA benefits

Program Duration

The OAA training program is a 12 month (2080 hours or 366 days) during which the residents have 100% protected time to master the complexities of caring for veterans.

Curriculum Model

The curriculum defines, separates, and integrates both classroom and experiential learning opportunities and consists of 80% experiential learning activities and 20% didactic learning activities.

Experiential Learning

The 12-month curricular program was designed using a four-phase model. The four-phase model consists of multiple rotations to a wide variety of clinics. The rationale for this approach is to provide new NP graduates an opportunity to apply basic knowledge and skills to a variety of clinical populations and cultural settings in the VA. This approach emphasized scaffolding of competencies across the organization entity and a complex system of diverse clinical services.

Clinical Preceptor and Mentorship

Our clinical preceptors are experienced licensed providers with VA North Texas who act as teachers and role models to help residents strengthen their clinical skills.  Our clinical preceptors supervise nurse practitioner residents during their experiential learning which allows for protected time tine facilitate role transition from theoretical learning to real-world clinical practice within the VHA system.

Didactic Sessions

There will be academic/learning activities; didactic classes, simulation, and professional conferences for experiential learning. Information on the topics, speakers, and rooms will be provided in advance.

Interprofessional Education

VA North Texas encourages & supports interprofessional education. Residents will be required to participate in selected Grand Rounds, Book/Journal Clubs, and other various interprofessional activities that may be available. Nurse practitioner residents will collaborate with medicine, pharmacy, psychology, and nursing residents as members of an interdisciplinary team.

Professional Development

Networking, collaborating, meeting new colleagues, and building relationships is key to professional development and career advancement within the program. Residents will attend and participate in the VA North Texas APRN workgroup meetings and other special committee activities. This will allow the resident to integrate into the APRN community within VA North Texas.

Scholarly Project

Residents will identify an evidence-based practice, quality or process improvement, systems re-design, or PDSA project during their training at the VA North Texas Health Care System. The resident will be expected to conduct a literature review, formulate a solution, and propose a plan to address the problem.  If feasible, the resident will implement the project. Residents will work with various faculty and committees within the VA and UTA-CONHI in the development of the project. Additionally, the residents will be expected to disseminate the scholarly project within the VA North Texas Health System. A formal poster and PowerPoint presentation will be presented by the resident to VANTHCS executive leaders and professional colleagues.

Accreditation

The VANTHC NPR Program has been accepted for accreditation review by the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE). Specific outcomes, goals, and objectives for the residency program, have been structured to meet the CCNE Proposed Standards for Accreditation of Nurse Practitioner Residency/Fellowship, which can be found at: Standards, Procedures & Guidelines (aacnnursing.org).

The review will be conducted in the Spring of 2024.

Program Competencies

All OAA NP Residency Programs are competency based. There are 13 general core competency domains that are applicable to all specialties. In addition, each specialty track has additional specific core competency domains of Knowledge for Practice and Patient Care. These OAA competencies have been structured to meet the required eight domains of competence for the health professions stated by the CCNE.  These domains are: person-centered care, knowledge for advanced nursing practice, practice-based learning and improvement, interpersonal and communication skills, professionalism, systems-based practice, interprofessional partnerships, and personal, professional, and leadership development.

Resident Performance Evaluations

Throughout the program, residents will be evaluated with different tools and competencies at specified intervals. In addition to being evaluated, residents also will have the opportunity to provide valuable feedback regarding the program, faculty, and training site.