Global Leaders Shape NP Research Agenda at Center’s Inaugural Conference
Thirty national and international experts in the field of advanced nursing and health services research gathered at Columbia Nursing on June 27 and 28, 2022, for the Advancement of Research on Nurse Practitioners (ARNP) conference hosted by the Center for Healthcare Delivery Research and Innovations and led by the center’s executive director, Lusine Poghosyan, PhD.
“ARNP brought together a group of interdisciplinary experts both from the U.S. and internationally to set a research agenda to study the growing NP workforce and barriers affecting their optimal practice in primary care,” Poghosyan said.
The purpose of this research agenda development conference was to convene global experts on the NP workforce to develop a comprehensive research agenda that defines the challenges and opportunities presented by NP delivery of primary care and to identify innovative approaches and methodologies needed to study them.
Along with Poghosyan—the principal investigator of this Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality-funded project and an expert in the NP workforce—the conference was co-chaired by Grant Martsolf, PhD, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing and chair of Nursing Science at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Health System.
A committee of 11 leading experts from the U.S., U.K., Germany, and Canada joined the co-chairs in planning the conference. Policymakers, administrators, clinicians, and researchers from several countries, including Germany, the United Kingdom, and Israel, attended the meeting.
During ARNP’s four plenary sessions, subject matter experts delivered presentations on topics including:
- NP workforce in primary care globally
- Care of the underserved and NP workforce
- Methodologies to study NP workforce and practice, and
- New environments and roles: NP training and continuum of health care.
Following each plenary, participants self-selected into smaller discussion groups and engaged in robust conversations on the topic. On day two of the conference, attendees used the Delphi method to identify key questions to guide future research.
The expected product of the conference is a scholarly manuscript outlining a research agenda to enhance the NP workforce and primary care delivery by NPs in the U.S., which will be shared with nationally relevant organizations.