Innovative Opportunities for Nurse Practitioner Education Uncovered by the Pandemic

Abstract

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic resulted in the abrupt withdrawal of clinical sites for nurse practitioner (NP) students during the Spring semester of 2020. This situation necessitated the identification of innovative clinical opportunities to ensure advanced practice nursing students met course objectives and program requirements. Method: This article describes innovative clinical opportunities that met the needs of the community, including those impacted by the pandemic, and enabled NP students' progression toward completing clinical requirements. Results: Participation in these unique opportunities provided more than 130 NP students with meaningful clinical experiences to increase competence in the care of vulnerable populations and communities during a public health crisis. Conclusion: Experiences supported competency development in the areas of leadership, clinical management, population health and infection control, policy and advocacy, informatics, telehealth, and ethical considerations while providing essential services to the community. These innovative clinical opportunities may be useful for graduate clinical programs worldwide. [ J Nurs Educ . 2022;61(3):153–155.]

Approach to advanced practice nursing student clinical during COVID‐19

“…Our institution has continued to provide flexibility with students during COVID surges where students complete clinical hours and remain in close contact with faculty during intersessions. Additionally, modifications have been made to the delivery of course content, including adapting to online and asynchronous modalities which allows students to focus on earning clinical hours, working and other obligations (Taylor et al, 2022 ). A flipped classroom structure has also been used and allows for any synchronous sessions to be devoted to debriefing, sharing clinical experiences and evaluating clinical competencies (Murphy et al, 2022 ).…”