How Much Time Do Nurse Practitioner Students Spend Seeing Patients in a Clinical Day?

Abstract

Educational institutions have the charge of educating nurse practitioner (NP) students with a strong clinical foundation that provides the skills and knowledge needed for practice. The National Organization of Nurse Practitioner Faculties (NONPF) defines clinical practice hours as those hours in which direct patient care is provided to individuals. In 2010, a National Task Force commissioned by NONPF determined it best to maintain the 500 clinical hour requirement to document attainment of the core and population-focused NP competencies. While this requirement is specific, quantifiable, and considered the “gold standard” for educating NP students, the nature and quality of those hours are not well understood. The two-fold purpose of this study was to explore: The characteristics of the clinical hours that family and adult-gerontology primary care NP students logged during practicum courses and what activities students report doing during “down time” when they are not engaged in direct patient care. Secondary data analysis was conducted with 18 family nurse practitioner (FNP) students and 27 adult gerontology primary care nurse practitioner (AGPCNP) students to equal a total of 45 NP students. time study was conducted with 31 FNP and 21 AGPCNP students to equal a total of 52 NP students. The results between the secondary data analysis and the time study were surprising. So what did the NP students spend their clinical hours doing? Did their logged clinical hours match their time study hours? What were the study implications? We look forward to sharing our study results at the Research Day.