Reply To: For all of our colleague students and faculty working to obtain clinical hours

[Wichanee Borisuthirattana]

Thank you, David, for posting the updates during this unprecedented time. During the normal school year, there are already issues and challenges for clinical DNP students to find and secure clinical site, a preceptor, and clinical hours. It is even more difficult during the pandemic for the students to secure and complete the 500 clinical hours. 500 clinical hours may not be enough for the students to learn about everything they wanted before they apply for a job and actually practice as NPs. However, it may seem a lot during this pandemic time when they are trying to complete all of the hours in order to graduate. I agree with Avery that DNP students are competent enough to be responsible of securing and completing their own clinical hours. Nevertheless, NP residency program may post great benefits for both the NP candidates/graduates and the future of healthcare system. Since 500 clinical hours may not be enough for some students to feel confident to practice as a newly graduated NPs, an optional residency or a fellowship program offered either by the school or teaching hospitals may not only help create more competent NPs in the market, but it may also attract more potential NP candidates. Currently, the responsibility of providing clinical sites may be the school’s, and I understand that there may not be enough students for the school to make an actual contract with the hospitals/primary care practice sites to create a more permanent clinical site. However, I propose that the NP schools and the hospitals/primary care practice sites work together to improve our primary care system. An organization managing NP residency/fellowship programs can be created to act as a liaison and collaborate between the schools and the hospitals/primary care practice sites to facilitate the process. Last but not least, I learned that students may pick and choose NP programs according to their clinical hours requirements and whether they have to secure their own clinical sites. Hence, I believe that creating a new way to facilitate their education and building their confidence to practice will attract more students to the profession.