Introduction to the themed issue: Nurse Practitioner Education No abstract available

Dedication No abstract available

Vaccine hesitancy: Not a new phenomenon, but a new threat Vaccines have been recognized as one of the top 10 public health achievements of the 20th century. In 1998, a study on the connection between measles, mumps, rubella vaccine and autism was published by the now discredited Andrew Wakefield. That study was retracted in 2010, but the damage was already done. The purpose of this article is to review the history of vaccine hesitancy and discuss a successful paradigm for speaking with vaccine-hesitant parents. Discussion of immunizations related to public health law and religious exemptions will also be reviewed.

A call to action: Building evidence for use of simulation in nurse practitioner education Leaders from national nursing organizations, nursing schools, and health care simulation vendors convened in early 2019 to discuss simulation in nurse practitioner (NP) education. Nurse practitioner clinical education needs a more standardized, efficient, and sustainable model to prepare NPs to provide quality care in complex health care systems. Currently, a major shortage of clinical sites and preceptors to educate students creates challenges for NP programs and nursing faculty. One strategy used by nursing programs to overcome this challenge is using simulation to provide clinical training for NP students in a safe, controlled environment. There remains, however, a lack of evidence linking these simulation experiences with clinical skills acquisition and program outcomes. Implementing competency-based education through standardized simulations has the potential to demonstrate quality, safety, and accountability across NP education programs. Ultimately, the expansion and acceptance of simulation hours in NP education is dependent on strong and favorable evidence from rigorous, high-quality studies.

National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties: A 40-year history of preparing nurse practitioners for practice This article provides a historic view of the development and accomplishments of the National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties (NONPF). The authors explore the history leading up to the formalization of NONPF, noting the major factors leading to the creation of NONPF. Since its inception in 1980, NONPF has led efforts to provide resources to nurse practitioner program faculty, create standards and guidelines for quality programs, and most recently work to develop measurable competencies. This article tracks the achievement of the organization by decade and provides an education, practice, and policy context that informed and inspired the activities of NONPF.

Preparing students to be ready for practice: An innovative approach to teaching advanced physical assessment skills online Distance graduate nursing education has been expanding. Although many didactic courses are taught through an online platform, there are often challenges to providing skill-based courses, such as advanced physical assessment, through an online format. To prepare and assess advanced practice nursing students on their clinical knowledge and physical assessment skills, an online course was developed using multisource feedback and videography. Students used videography to record themselves as they conducted physical assessments on a volunteer patient. Students then critiqued their own video, critiqued two of their colleagues' videos, and the final critiques of the videos were conducted by faculty. All students were expected to perform and pass a complete physical examination on a standardize patient as their final examination. The final scores of the students learning through the online course were equivalent to the scores achieved by the students in the traditional face-to-face physical assessment course.

Precepting nurse practitioner students in the graduate nurse education demonstration: A cross-sectional analysis of the preceptor experience Background: The Graduate Nurse Education (GNE) Demonstration seeks to increase the number of advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) in clinical practice. With the overall increase in APRN programs and, particularly, enrollment in nurse practitioner (NP) programs, there is growing competition among students to secure quality clinical precepting experiences. Purpose: This study describes NPs' and physicians' experiences with precepting APRN students within the Greater Philadelphia GNE Consortium. Methods: This was a cross-sectional descriptive survey of 1,021 NP and physician preceptors who provided clinical practicum experiences for at least one of the nine Greater Philadelphia GNE Consortium schools. Results: Differences between NP and physician precepting experiences regarding the importance of various factors in their decisions to precept were explored. Both NP and physician preceptors provide clinical practicum experiences to APRN students because they enjoy doing so. However, they differ regarding what they find important in their decisions to precept such as having protected time to precept and educational opportunities. Implications for practice: As universities work to recruit quality preceptors, they should consider tailoring their approach based on the preceptor's clinical role. In addition, schools located within the same region should consider streamlining administrative processes to form sustaining and productive clinical partnerships.

Establishing nurse practitioner clinical practicums: Addressing fiscal realities As demand expands for nurse practitioner clinical practicum sites, the supply of preceptors is decreasing. The traditional model of in-kind clinical training is losing its foothold for a variety of reasons. A looming question is how quickly a “pay to precept” norm will grow and what will be the costs. The pay for precepting movement is discussed including current trends, costs, and emerging compensation models. To adapt to this trend, alternative ways of drawing the precepting value proposition are suggested, particularly decreasing preceptor and site demands while increasing students' readiness to enter clinical practicum and tapping into faculty expertise to add value to the partnership. The authors provide suggestions on building a strategy for rethinking the structure of student precepting arrangements and compensation models.

Establishing nurse practitioner clinical practicums: Addressing fiscal realities No abstract available

Facilitating faculty knowledge of DNP quality improvement projects: Key elements to promote strong practice partnerships Enrollment in Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) programs is growing rapidly. This poses a challenge to faculty because there is a gap in knowledge about evidence-based practice and quality improvement DNP projects. Challenged by the growing unavailability of preceptors and mentors in the practice setting, solutions are needed to help students meet the essentials of the degree and competencies for practice. Faculty knowledge of key DNP quality improvement project elements, measuring, monitoring, and sustaining improvement outcomes, may help students design projects to provide value to practice partners. A literature review was conducted to identify gaps in faculty knowledge of potential practice partners' value-added elements of DNP quality improvement projects (measuring, monitoring, and sustainability) to make recommendations for faculty development to improve DNP project mentoring. There is evidence in the literature that faculty feel ill-prepared to mentor DNP projects. Quality improvement content is available for faculty development in the nursing and other health sciences literature. Optimizing faculty knowledge regarding evidence-based practice, quality improvement processes, and mentoring of sustainable DNP projects that improve health care provides value to practice partners and may advance long-term partnerships. Adding structures to support faculty knowledge in these areas contributes to solutions to the challenges of rapidly expanding DNP programs.