Cultivating Diversity in the Advanced Practice Registered Nurse Workforce: An Exemplar From an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse Fellowship Program

Research findings on the importance of diversity in the nursing workforce have been published by a team of experts from the University of Michigan. The study highlights the need to address systemic barriers that prevent individuals from underrepresented minority groups from entering and advancing in the nursing profession. A postgraduate advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) fellowship program was developed in collaboration with a federally qualified health center and a college of nursing to recruit and retain diverse applicants. The program demonstrated improvements in strategies to diversify the community health workforce, and the researchers outline a quality-improvement framework to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in the community health workforce.

Key Takeaways:

• A postgraduate advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) fellowship program was developed to recruit and retain diverse applicants in the community health workforce.
• The program demonstrated improvements in strategies to diversify the community health workforce over two admission cycles.
• Systemic barriers exist that prevent individuals from underrepresented minority groups from entering and advancing in the nursing workforce.
• The researchers employed a quality-improvement ethos to enable evolution and growth in the program.
• Holistic review methodology was used to interview applicants with explicit efforts to mitigate the effects of bias towards race, ethnicity, gender, and academic affiliation.
• The program is a partnership between a federally qualified health center and a college of nursing.
• The research concluded that the program provides a model for promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in the community health workforce.

Statistics:

• 2 admission cycles: the program was evaluated over a period of 2 years.
• 542-549: the pages of the Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners where the research was published.
• 2001-2022: the time period over which Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, the publisher of the journal, has been in operation.
• 34:3: the journal volume and issue number where the research was published.
• 15 April 2022: the date the research was published.

Sources:

• NewsRx. Researchers at University of Michigan Release New Data on Nurse Practitioners (Cultivating Diversity In the Advanced Practice Registered Nurse Workforce: an Exemplar From an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse Fellowship Program). Health & Medicine Week. April 15, 2022; p 5765.
• Cultivating Diversity In the Advanced Practice Registered Nurse Workforce: an Exemplar From an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse Fellowship Program. Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, 2022;34(3):542-549.