Professional Conference Poster Presentation: Innovative Professional Development Assignment in Nurse Practitioner Education.

BACKGROUND: This innovative assignment converted a traditional presentation to an assignment that addressed several National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties competencies and the growing trend toward nurse practitioner professional advancement models. METHOD: The professional conference poster assignment spanned two semesters. The first semester assignment included a focused literature review and abstract development. The second semester assignment included a formal presentation using a digital poster format. RESULTS: Only three of the 23 respondents indicated ever having developed an abstract or a professional conference poster prior to the assignment. Students identified new skills acquired as a result of the professional conference poster assignment: writing an abstract (78%), writing a biographical statement (87%), constructing a digital poster (91%), speaking at a conference (87%), and searching the evidence (48%). CONCLUSION: Nurse practitioner students evaluated this assignment highly, learned valuable dissemination skills that met core competencies, and were instilled with a culture of clinical scholarship and dissemination. [J Nurs Educ. 2020;59(6):345-348.].

After-hours/on-call experience during primary care nurse practitioner education utilizing standard scenarios and simulated patients.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Few nurse practitioner (NP) programs include an after-hours/on-call component in their clinical preparation of NP students. This role is expected in many primary and specialty care practices, and is one that students feel unprepared to competently navigate. METHODS: Utilizing simulated callers as patients or parents, NP students participated in a simulated after-hours/on-call experience that included receiving the call, managing the patient, and submitting documentation of the encounter. Students completed pre- and postparticipation evaluations, and were evaluated by the simulated patient callers and faculty using standardized evaluation tools. CONCLUSIONS: NP students rated the experience as an educationally valuable experience despite feeling anxious and nervous about the experience. Several essential skills were identified including critical thinking, clear communication, self-confidence, and access to resources. After participation NP students were more receptive to an NP position with an on-call component. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Inclusion of a simulated on-call experience is a feasible component of NP education and should be added to the NP curriculum.