A Leadership Approach to Improving Talent, Culture and Advancing Strategy

With the change in the landscape of the providers (physician, APRNs, PAs) available, healthcare systems require a change in strategy to attract provider talent. With the growth rate of physicians vastly decreased compared to the rate of APPs, healthcare systems need to onboard and integrate these providers efficiently and in a systematic manner. OSF HealthCare has been one of the first organizations to implement an APP fellowship to help fill this need. Other goals of the fellowship include improvement of engagement, retention and patient care outcomes. OSF HealthCare has been able to structure a program that allows for scalability of the fellowship into different service lines as well as adjusting the number of fellows accepted to align with need. With centralized leadership support, a team of educators and supervisors work with the different clinical areas to provide both clinical experience and didactic education. This extensive support has resulted in excellent retention outcomes of APPs after graduation from the fellowship of 93.9%.

One significant difference between OSF HealthCare's program compared to other APP fellowships is an actively involved physician serving as a medical director. As part of the leadership team, the medical director and a vice president of APP education have been able to bridge gaps and improve collaboration within different areas within the healthcare system. Being part of an academic teaching hospital, decreased opportunities for educational experiences of residents and medical fellows has been a consistent concern as growth of the APP fellowship occurs into different clinical areas. This leadership team has been able to work with the service line leaders and improve culture between physicians and APPs along with advancing the healthcare system's strategy.