Advanced Practice Provider Onboarding Support Model Comparison: Is there a Superior Choice?

Abstract

Health care practices and institutions are providing variable onboarding models to prepare physician assistants (PAs) and nurse practitioners (NPs) for transition into new practice settings. With the evolution of healthcare delivery and increased opportunities for PAs and NPs to specialize in advanced practice environments, there has been a growing demand for an evidenced-based strategy, structure, and appraisal of content within existing onboarding models. The aim of this paper is to compare two onboarding models for Advanced Practice Providers (APPs): postgraduate training programs and traditional institutional transition to practice programs. With expanding numbers of postgraduate training programs offered nationally and increasing numbers of PA and NP graduates seeking out these opportunities calls into question the differences offered through each model. Postgraduate training programs appear to provide a consistent structure of comprehensive curriculum design, interprofessional learning, meaningful institutional engagement, leadership exposure, and support a superior onboarding support model for PAs and NPs.