Transforming Baccalaureate Curriculum and Ambulatory Care Nurses’ Competencies in Rural and Underserved Settings for Primary Care

Need: Urgent need to transform baccalaureate nursing education to meet healthcare needs highlighted in part from the Affordable Care Act (Macy, 2016; RWF, 2015). Rural and underserved populations disproportionately experience negative health outcomes due in part to limited access to primary care providers. Student preparation needs to focus on complex chronic illness management, transitional care, care coordination, preventative care, population health, advanced care planning, wellness visits, and end-of-life planning.

Undertaking: Integrate primary care content via online modules in current BSN student curriculum as well as develop online primary care content CEs and interactive webinars for community nurses in FQHCs and other ambulatory care.

Challenges: Developing content that highlights nurses' primary care roles into acute care-focused curriculum. Providing professional development to busy working primary care nurses. Increasing primary care competencies of existing nursing faculty.

Initial program successes: Digital badge content cross-walked within undergraduate program curriculum, faculty content experts developed curriculum modules, first badges into curriculum Fall 2019, statewide webinars with ambulatory care nurses in FQHCs with topics of transitional care, chronic illness management, billing and coding, continuing education modules available to RNs in Spring 2020, and increase clinical experiences in rural and underserved FQHCs for BS students.

Nurse Education, Practice, Quality and Retention Program (NEPQR) grant: The goal of the Utah NEPQR is to develop academic-practice partnerships with urban and rural PC clinics in medically underserved Utah settings to provide pathways for student nurses and RNs to receive expanded training in PC nursing.

This project is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under UK1HP31735, Nursing Education, Practice, Quality, and Retention – Registered Nurses in Primary Care Program.