A decade of faculty development for health professions educators: lessons learned from the Macy Faculty Scholars Program.

Faculty development (FD) programs are critical for providing the knowledge and skills necessary to drive positive change in health professions education, but they take many forms to attain the program goals. The Macy Faculty Scholars Program (MFSP), created by the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation (JMJF) in 2010, intends to develop participants as leaders, scholars, teachers, and mentors. After a decade of implementation, an external review committee conducted a program evaluation to determine how well the program met its intended goals and defined options for ongoing improvement.The committee selected Stufflebeam's CIPP (context, input, process, products) framework to guide the program evaluation. Context and input components were derived from the MFSP description and demographic data, respectively. Process and product components were obtained through a mixed-methods approach, utilizing both quantitative and qualitative data obtained from participant survey responses, and curriculum vitae (CV).The evaluation found participants responded favorably to the program and demonstrated an overall increase in academic productivity, most pronounced during the two years of the program. Mentorship, community of practice, and protected time were cited as major strengths. Areas for improvement included: enhancing the diversity of program participants, program leaders and mentors across multiple sociodemographic domains; leveraging technology to strengthen the MFSP community of practice; and improving flexibility of the program.The program evaluation results provide evidence supporting ongoing investment in faculty educators and summarizes key strengths and areas for improvement to inform future FD efforts for both the MFSP and other FD programs.

The Patient Experience and Patient Satisfaction: Measurement of a Complex Dynamic

The concept of patient experience is surprisingly complex and generally linked with patient satisfaction. As reimbursement and performance policies have become more normative within healthcare, the patient experience has become a metric to measure payment systems for quality. However, we still have much to learn about the concept of patient experience and its influence on how patients report satisfaction with their care. This article discusses challenges for measurement of the patient experience, such as lack of consistent terminology and multiple contributing factors, by reviewing a brief selection of selected literature to help readers appreciate the complexity of measurement. Several examples from clinical practice will consider regulation, organizational environments, and research that can offer clarity around important factors that impact a patient's experience and subsequent satisfaction with the provision of care.

Nurse practitioners as primary care providers: creating favorable practice environments in New York State and Massachusetts.

BACKGROUND: Policy makers, health care organizations, and health professionals are calling for the expansion of the nurse practitioner (NP) workforce in primary care to ensure access to high-quality, cost-effective care. However, to date, little is known about NP practice environments in primary care settings and how they may affect the expansion of this workforce and their practice. PURPOSES: The aims of this study were to investigate NP practice environments in two states, Massachusetts (MA) and New York State (NY), and determine the impact of state and organization on NP practice environment. METHODOLOGY: A cross-sectional survey design was used. Practice environments were measured using the Nurse Practitioner Primary Care Organizational Climate Questionnaire in terms of NP-physician relations, NP-administration relations, support, NP role comprehension, and NP independent practice. In MA, 291 NPs were recruited from the Massachusetts Provider Database through mail surveys. In NY, 278 NPs were recruited from the NY Nurse Practitioner Association membership list through online surveys. Data were collected from May through September 2012. Descriptive statistics were computed. Multivariate analysis of variance was conducted to investigate the effect of state and organization type on NP practice environments. FINDINGS: Nurse practitioners reported favorable relationships with physicians, deficiencies in their relationships with administrators, and lack of support. Nurse practitioners from MA reported better practice environments. Nurse practitioners from hospital-affiliated practices perceived poorer practice environments than did NPs practicing in physician offices and community health centers. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Optimal working relations with physicians and administration, access to resources, and clarity in NP role are necessary to create practice environments where NPs can function effectively as primary care providers.

A collaborative communitywide health fair: the process and impacts on the community.

The purpose of this article is to describe the process of conducting a collaborative communitywide health fair, and the impacts of such health intervention programs on community members. A community health fair addresses the health access needs of underserved populations. The success or effectiveness of such community-based programs requires systematic approach to assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation. The PRECEDE˜PROCEED model was used as the guiding framework. The health fair described in this article was coordinated by nurses and drew resources from multiple health providers and organizations. The fair provided opportunities for vulnerable populations to access and utilize appropriate and comprehensive health services, resources and education.

Using an academic-community partnership model and blended learning to advance community health nursing pedagogy.

This article describes a model of teaching community health nursing that evolved from a long-term partnership with a community with limited existing health programs. The partnership supported RN-BSN students' integration in the community and resulted in reciprocal gains for faculty, students and community members. Community clients accessed public health services as a result of the partnership. A blended learning approach that combines face-to-face interactions, service learning and online activities was utilized to enhance students' learning. Following classroom sessions, students actively participated in community-based educational process through comprehensive health needs assessments, planning and implementation of disease prevention and health promotion activities for community clients. Such active involvement in an underserved community deepened students' awareness of the fundamentals of community health practice. Students were challenged to view public health from a broader perspective while analyzing the impacts of social determinants of health on underserved populations. Through asynchronous online interactions, students synthesized classroom and community activities through critical thinking. This paper describes a model for teaching community health nursing that informs students' learning through blended learning, and meets the demands for community health nursing services delivery.