Project BOOST Expands

Collaboration, Commitment at the Top

Recognizing the unprecedented need for NPPs and hospitalists to work together, the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners (AANP), the American Association of Physician Assistants (AAPA), and SHM have formed a unique collaborative group that benefits NPPs, hospitalists, and patients.

“It’s a win-win situation,” says Sharon Kulesz, director of alliance development and education for AAPA. “It provides physician specialties with better-trained physician assistants, and it gives physician assistants better training within that specialty. The trainings are intense, high-level, and in concert with the physician organization, so when a physician assistant attends a conference, the physicians know it’s a high-quality, recognized session.”

A wide range of initiatives, including the NPP committee, a recently launched NPP page on SHM’s Web site, an NPP “boot camp,” and NPP educational sessions at HM09 in Chicago, reflect SHM’s commitment to all of the NPPs on hospitalist teams. “From the very beginning, we have envisioned SHM as an open tent,” Miller says. “SHM is a home for everybody involved in the practice of hospital medicine, including nurse practitioners and physician assistants.”

The NPP sessions at HM09 will feature a “basic” session that will serve as an introduction to how NPPs can alleviate workload issues in hospitalist practices; the “advanced” session will help hospitalists who already utilize NPPs to understand how best to work together. The boot camp, scheduled for August and jointly organized by AANP, AAPA, and SHM, will be geared specifically toward entry-level hospitalist NPPs.

AAPA already has seen considerable demand for NPP-focused educational programs. When the group began offering an educational course in hospital medicine two years ago, 30 physician assistants attended. In 2008, the course attracted 60 attendees, and it has a waiting list of nearly 100 for the next course.

The demand for HM courses for NPPs doesn’t surprise Saltzman. She’s seen firsthand the allure HM holds for NPPs. “They are attracted to hospital medicine because it is clinically challenging and intellectually stimulating,” she says. “But, most importantly, they like it because they know they can make a real difference.”—BS