Development of an Advanced Practice Provider Onboarding Structure

Advanced practice providers, also referred to as nurse practitioners and physician assistants, are increasingly being employed to function in a variety of healthcare settings. As organizations grow their advanced practice provider staff, they must develop a distinct advanced practice provider orientation and onboarding program. Finding the right staff is only half the battle; if you do not orient and onboard staff properly the will not stay (National Systems Contractors Associations [NSCA], 2017). Administrators, certainly directors of advanced practice providers, are pursuing unique and dynamic ways to facilitate credentialing, privileging, orientation and onboarding of these individuals. The director for advanced practice nursing and allied health professionals, also the doctorate of nursing practice (DNP) project lead, reviewed the current onboarding process, performed a literature review of onboarding best practices, developed an onboarding structure for newly hired APPs, and evaluated the structure at project completion. Assigning preceptors/mentors, establishing an orientation/onboarding timeline, developing and implementing competency tools, and illuminating Joint Commission standards allowed a healthcare organization in Northern California to hire advanced practice providers that improved provider productivity and increase patient access to care. Anonymous electronic surveys helped identifying areas for enhancement as well as those that were currently successful before and after execution. Having a dedicated team and process was the key to successful acculturation and retention of advanced practice providers within the organization