To better understand both the supply and demand for Nurse Practitioners (NPs) nationwide, faculty members from GW Nursing in collaboration with the GW Health Workforce Institute are piloting a first-of-its-kind study.
Dr. Asefeh Faraz and Edward Salsberg are assessing the demand for, and distribution of, new NP graduates to better understand health care workforce demands in the United States, Dr. Faraz said. Their data will help inform educational programs as they prepare future practitioners. Nurses considering additional education, industry organizations and policymakers will also find their data relevant as they target resources to areas and specialties in greatest need.
While the pilot survey only includes recent Family NP graduates, the researchers plan to expand to all NP specialties in future years.
“What areas of the country are they gravitating toward? Are they going into primary care? Specialty practice?” Dr. Faraz said.
Mr. Salsberg, who has conducted surveys of new physicians throughout his career, noted that by regularly surveying new graduates, the survey provides an early warning system for changes in the marketplace.
Representatives from the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP), American Association of Critical Care Nurses (AACN) and National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties (NONPF) serve on an advisory committing providing input to the researchers about the types of data valuable to the industry. The researchers are also working with NP program directors from nursing schools nationwide on recruitment of study participants and survey design and plan to provide schools with reports on the experiences of their graduates.
In the pilot phase 250 NPs who graduated in 2017 will be surveyed in September. It’s the first study to collect information regarding the employment plans and the employment search experience of new NPs immediately following graduation.
The researchers plan to provide their data to industry organizations, educational programs and policymakers.
“We’re trying to help with workforce planning predictions. This database would be most helpful if it’s built over time,” Dr. Faraz said.