Standardizing the Transition to Practice for Advanced Practice Providers in Critical Care

Background: There is a lack of transitional support for new hire advanced practice providers (APPs), especially within the critical care sector of healthcare which is leading to increased burnout, anxiety, feelings of inadequacy, and a lack of confidence as a new provider. Purpose: The purpose of this Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) project way to development and implement curriculum- and resource-based educational onboarding and orientation materials to provide transitional support for new hire APPs in the medical intensive care unit (MICU) within a large academic teaching hospital. Methods: Utilizing an online platform named Brightspace, old onboarding and orientation materials were removed and updated content was either created or virtually sourced to create a structured and sustainable onboarding and orientation experience for future MICU new hires. Pre- and post-implementation surveys were utilized to evaluate whether the updates of Brightspace information were positive or negative for upcoming new hires. Results: A total of 12 participants from the current MICU practice participated in the project. There was a noted 92% significant improvement in content provided in Brightspace with 75% reporting the new content being more applicable to the APP transition to practice specifically for transition into the MICU group. Conclusions: Creation of a curriculum- and resource-based educational onboarding and orientation materials resulted in a reported improvement in content included and advancements in potential new hire readiness for practicing as a MICU APP following onboarding and orientation. Development of a structured onboarding and orientation process could lead to decreases in new hire anxiety and could provide a standardized approach to the APP transition to practice for other MICUs across the nation.

Name thesis:degree_name

D.N.P.

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Graduate College

Grantor dc:publisher

The University of Arizona.

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Hopkins, Samantha Rae

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Bouchard, Lindsay

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Bartlett, Courtney
• Thornton, Nathaniel

• Advanced Practice Provider
• Critical Care
• Transition to Practice

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction, presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10150/679214

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repository.arizona.edu:10150/679214