Pros And Cons Of Np Residencies
Since nurse practitioners are not required to complete a residency or fellowship, NPs must weigh the pros and cons of doing so. If youre thinking of doing a residency or fellowship, consider these benefits and drawbacks.
Pros
- Clinical Knowledge Residency-trained NPs can expect to emerge with a knowledge base significantly more robust than that with which they graduated. The additional year of patient care experience paired with a classroom-based curriculum takes NPs skill sets to the next level.
- Supportive Practice Environment Facilities offering nurse practitioner residencies understand the challenges that new graduates face in practice, particularly the skills gap. So, NP residents work alongside experienced providers who are willing to mentor and play a role in assisting with patient care throughout the year. This means that NPs get questions answered and procedures demonstrated in a supportive workplace setting.
- Peer Group Most residencies and fellowships accept a small cohort of NPs each year. This means that participants are exposed to and practice with others who are in their same career-phase fostering professional relationships. In some cases, such as with ThriveAPs ThriveAP programs, residents even participate in learning opportunities with other residents in different geographic locations providing access to an even larger professional support network. Life as a new graduate can feel lonely and a close cohort provides added support and encouragement.
Physician Assistant Or Nurse Practitioner
Currently licensed as an advanced practice nurse in the state of Georgia by the Georgia Board of Nursing and certified as a Nurse Practitioner by the American
All with exceptional skill and expertise, most are fellowship-trained in their field of specialty for additional certification.
$48 – $60 an hour
About Lee Health’s Advanced Practice Provider Fellowships:
Lee Health’s APP Fellowship Programs offer fully-benefited, 12-month positions designed to provide post-graduate training to APPs who wish to gain more experience in primary care, surgery, or adult critical care. Our goal is to provide support and training, allowing APP Fellows to build confidence and knowledge in the clinical specialties of the specific fellowship.
Through didactics, practice-based learning, professional development, and mentoring, the Lee Health APP Fellowship Programs aim to foster graduates who are well-rounded APPs ready to work within the Lee Health interprofessional health care team to provide excellent patient-centered care.
View more details regarding the fellowship programs below!
In order to be admitted to the fellowship program, applicants must:
- Be a graduate of an accredited NP/PA program (ARC-PA, ACEN, CCNE as appropriate
- Be certified by the National Commission on Certification for Physician
Assistants , American Nurses Credentialing Center , American Association of Critical Care Nurses , or American Academy of Nurse Practitioners as appropriate
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Why Are Nurse Practitioner Residencies Valuable
Nurse practitioners gain a foundation of knowledge in their NP schooling, however their education is much shorter than that of physicians and consists of significantly fewer clinical hours. In fact, in some cases, nurse practitioners may receive just 3% of the hands-on patient care hours that physicians do in medical school and residency. In the workplace, however, NPs and PAs are a heavily relied-upon resource and may be expected to care for complex patients. In some settings, nurse practitioners are expected to provide as much as 80% of the care that physicians provide but with far less formal training.
This so-called skills gap presents a problem for new graduate NPs. Meeting the expectations of an employer who may not be set up to provide on-the-job learning is difficult, particularly when employers may not be set up to provide required support, mentorship and resources. Caring for complex patients is overwhelming as a less experienced nurse practitioner and results in uncertainty and dissatisfaction with the profession.
Recognizing these inconsistencies between nurse practitioner education and practice, healthcare facilities began to create residency programs for NPs. These programs set the employer and NP up for success by providing adjusted expectations for performance and productivity as new graduates continue learning in practice along with a formal curriculum to build on the education NPs receive in school.
What Type Of Post

The landmark Institute of Medicine report The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health recommended both residencies and fellowships to increase the professionalism of nurse practitioners and shore up some problems in the profession. In particular, nursing residencies were seen as a way to give new graduates more clinical experience in a specialty area while under supervision and to increase retention rates among new NPs.
Residencies are a great fit for any recent graduate with an MSN or DNP.
Fellowships are there to build your expertise in a specific sub-specialty of practice. Theyre often a better fit for NPs who have a couple years experience under their belt. Its typically at that point in your career that you start figuring out exactly what it is you need to learn more about. Fellowships are where you get that knowledge.
In other cases, fellowships can be more aimed at research than practice. This still offers a high level of training in the sub-specialty, but the focus will be on developing theoretical knowledge rather than honing hands-on direct patient care skills.
You will also find fellowships here that are not exclusive to nurse practitioners. Depending on the specialty in question, a fellowship might be open to doctors, nurses, and even non-clinicians.
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Nurse Practitioner Fellowships & Residencies In Primary Care
University of Rochesters Nurse Practitioner Residency Program provides Family Nurse Practitioner graduates with the training they need to provide high-quality, cost-effective, family-centered patient care to a diverse and complex population. The university offers an urban practice NP residency program and a rural practice NP residency program.
In addition to working at preceptor continuity clinics, residents will perform specialty rotations that may include: pediatrics geriatrics urology womens health oncology pain management and immunology.
- Location: Rochester, NY
- Duration: 12 months
- Application Deadline: Urban Practice NP Residency Program Rural Practice NP Residency Program
- Compensation: Salary and benefits
The Family Nurse Practitioner residency program at the Family Health Center of Worcester is an intense clinical program that prepares FNPs to meet the needs of a culturally diverse and clinical complex patient population.
Within a family practice model, residents will be exposed to a wide range of health services, including sports medicine, newborn and postpartum care, prenatal clinic, office procedure clinic, school-based health, colposcopy, and HIV and hepatitis care. Workshop topics include diabetes 101, womens health issues in primary care, malpractice in primary care, integrative behavioral health in primary care, and the elderly patient.
Advanced Practice Nursing Residency And Fellowships By Specialization And State For 2021
Below youll find the most current list of available residency and specialty programs for APRNs in the United States for 2021. The programs are grouped together by specialty, and then listed by state. In many cases, youll find that states may only have one program in a given specialty, and sometimes none at all. To find the right fit, youll have to shop around.
It pays to check with other resources to find residency and fellowship openings. In some cases, youll find them listed on regular job boards, such as the American Association of Nurse Practitioners Job Center, along with other types of NP positions.
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Cardiology Nurse Practitioner Fellowship Programs
- Arizona
- Mayo Clinic Cardiology Nurse Practitioner Fellowship
What Is The Difference Between Fellowship And Residency Programs
Its easier to understand these terms if you understand where they come from. Being familiar with the medical model of training, the people who developed APRN training consciously or sub-consciously borrowed terminology from the world of physician education.
There, doctors are all required to complete residencies immediately after their graduation from medical school, almost always in their field of specialization. A fellowship is an optional follow-on to residency, one that offers even deeper specialization in their field of practice. For example, a doctor might do their residency in internal medicine. Then, optionally, they could take on a fellowship in hematology, specializing in blood-borne diseases and treatments. Both residencies and fellowships are training positions, not permanent postings.
In nursing, the same general pattern applies.
A residency is a short-term educational position in a nursing specialty area, such as primary care or family practice A fellowship is also a temporary position, but one drilling down into more specialized topics like oncology or emergency medicine.
What this all means is that its important to look at your options for both residencies and fellowships for nurse practitioners. Both could be in play to give you the combination of general practice area, patient population and specialty-specific training you might be interested in.
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Nurse Practitioner Residency Settings
The overwhelming majority of residencies and fellowships available to NPs are offered in primary care. So, they take place in outpatient clinics. Most are offered by Federally Qualified Health Centers that care for underserved patient populations. These clinics may be located in rural areas that are geographically underserved. Or, they may be located in urban areas but work almost exclusively with patient populations that are underserved such as the homeless.
There are a few non-FQHC residency options available. These programs may be offered by hospital systems in outlying clinics or within hospitals themselves. Hospital systems are more likely to offer specialty-focused tracks such as Mayo Clinics cardiology nurse practitioner fellowship, to name one program.
Np Residency Specialty Options
Primary care takes the cake when it comes to NP residencies and fellowships. With more than 20 program options, FNPs are best situated to be competitive for one of these programs. Nurse practitioner graduates with specialty interests do have a few focused options scattered across the country. Hospital systems may offer inpatient residencies or fellowships for acute care nurse practitioners. There are also a handful of specialty options that may combine inpatient and outpatient medicine. Swedish Hospital and Johns Hopkins, for example, offer fellowships for APRNs interested in gastroenterology.
The bottomline? If primary care is your niche, youre in good shape there are plenty of places for you to apply for post-grad programs. If youre interested in pursuing specialty post-graduate education, your options are limited but there are a handful of programs out there. Your next best bet is to land a specialty position with a supportive employer committed to teaching and mentoring.
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Our Np Residency Program
Established in 2017, the CHAS Health Nurse Practitioner Residency Program is a 13-month educational program that combines clinical practicum experiences, specialty rotations and didactic education to provide a well-rounded experience for newly graduated Nurse Practitioners. Our program offers an opportunity to work alongside experienced health care providers from a variety of disciplines including nursing, medicine, pharmacy, and behavioral health.
- Regularly scheduled didactics: View Didactic Schedule.
- Small group learning sessions such as: how to perform a diabetic foot exam, microscopy, and improving medical decision making. Residents also complete training in Nexplanon insertion and receive an additional 8-hour instruction in family planning and contraceptive management known as On Your Own Terms training.
- Weekly case discussions.
- Option to participate in Project ECHO to meet personal and professional learning objectives.
- Each cohort completes a group Quality Improvement or Practice Improvement Project aimed at meeting organizational objectives as identified by our Health Outcomes Team . This project is led by a team of Quality Improvement Specialists and Coaches from within CHAS Health.
Goals Of The Fellowship:

- Enhance the clinical knowledge and expertise of our APPs needed to optimize practice and demonstrate improved clinical outcomes within Atrium Health
- Serve as an immersion in specialty-specific experiences that prepare APPs for critical thinking above the level received in formal education
- Expand our APPs knowledge of evidenced-based practice, basic research techniques, guideline development and quality improvement initiatives, aimed to improve patient care outcomes within Atrium Health
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Palliative Care And Oncology Nurse Practitioner Fellowship Programs
- Florida
- University of Miami Health System Oncology Nurse Practitioner Fellowship
Applying To Np Programs In Florida
Most NP programs in Florida prepare working nurses to move into more advanced patient care roles while still allowing them to continue in their current positions. Advanced coursework in nursing, leadership, and related subjects equip nurses to work independently and provide high-quality, advanced care.
Although specific program requirements vary, the minimum qualifications for admission typically include the following.
- Admission Materials: Many programs require applicants to pass an undergraduate statistics course. Other commonly requested admission materials include a resume/curriculum vitae, personal statement, transcripts, and letters of recommendation. Some programs also require an interview.
- GPA Requirement: Most Florida nurse practitioner programs require a bachelor’s degree with a minimum 3.0 GPA.
- Licenses and Years of Clinical Experience A current, unencumbered Florida nursing license and 1-2 years of clinical experience are required.
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Acute Care Nurse Practitioner Fellowship Programs
- California
- Shasta Community Health Center Nurse Practitioner Post-Graduate Fellowship Program Urgent Care Rotation)
Chas Health Primary Care Hpsa Score
This attribute represents the Health Professional Shortage Area Score developed by the National Health Service Corps in determining priorities for the assignment of clinicians. The scores range from 0 to 25 where the higher the score, the greater the priority.
As an NHSC S2S LRP participant, you must work at an NHSC-approved site with a Health Professional Shortage Area score of 14 or higher. CHAS Health has a Primary Care HSPA Score of 19 as of September 2021.
Last year, we served over 99,200 patients! Visit our medical, dental, and urgent care location pages to learn more!
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Surgical And Critical Care Nurse Practitioner Fellowship Programs
- California
- University of California San Francisco Surgical and Critical Care Nurse Practitioner Fellowship
Family Nurse Practitioner Residency And Fellowship Programs
- California
- Santa Rosa Community Health Centers Family Nurse Practitioner Residency
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Applying For Nurse Practitioner Fellowships & Residencies
Nurse practitioner fellowship and residency programs generally look for candidates who have completed their education less than 12-18 months before enrollment. The application cycle typically mirrors the academic calendar, with applications opening in January for a September start date.
Each fellowship or residency will have different application and admission requirements, but some commonalities do exist. Candidates will generally need to provide: a resume an application form letter of recommendation a personal statement and/or essay and certification and/or licensure eligibility.
Why Is Np Program Accreditation In Florida Important

Choosing an accredited NP program is critical for several reasons, not the least of which are accessing financial aid for nursing school and qualifying for employment. Attending a nonaccredited program can keep you from advancing your degree or career.
Accreditation ensures that the program meets the standards established by the accrediting agency. It makes certain that students receive a high-quality education that prepares them to practice as an NP.
The Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education and the Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing accredit NP programs. The exceptions are nurse midwife and nurse anesthetist programs, which are accredited by other organizations. Accreditation is granted based on the program curriculum, instructor qualifications, student outcomes, and other aspects of the program.
All of the programs highlighted in this ranking are accredited.
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