The Institute will Launch Nurse Practitioner Fellowship Program in July 2017

New York, NY (December 16, 2016) – Beginning in July 2017, the Institute for Family Health will pilot a one-year Nurse Practitioner Fellowship program at its Walton Family Health Center in the Bronx. The program will prepare newly-licensed family nurse practitioners (FNPs) to provide outstanding primary care to people of all ages in underserved communities.

In its inaugural year, the Institute plans to enroll two full-time FNPs in the Fellowship, which will comprise both precepted and independent patient care sessions as well as specialty rotations and didactic training. The Fellowship fills a gap in NP education by providing new NPs with a structured, supervised year of clinical practice and continuing education, not unlike a physician residency program. If the program is successful, the Institute hopes to sustain and grow it over the next several years.

“The Institute for Family Health was cofounded by Yvonne Eisner RN, FNP and has depended upon the extraordinary work of our nurse practitioners for over three decades. With a recognition of the increasing clinical and organizational complexity required by primary care providers comes the need to establish advanced training in the field of nurse practice. We hope to develop a training curriculum which can be replicated nationally,” said Dr. Neil Calman, CEO and President of the Institute for Family Health.

The Nurse Practitioner Fellowship program builds on the Institute’s long history of innovative health workforce development programs, most notably our family medicine residencies. The program will benefit the Institute by engaging talented FNPs who may continue to work for the Institute after graduation from the Fellowship. The program will create access for additional patients, while preparing the FNP Fellows for continued practice in high-need communities. It will also formalize the existing teaching that the Institute’s dedicated FNP staff are already doing with the many FNP students and new FNPs placed at its sites.

The Institute’s Margaret Walsh, a family nurse practitioner, will serve as the Fellowship Program Director with FNP Yvonne Eisner, and Drs. Red Schiller, Eric Gayle and Andrea Maritato serving as senior advisors to the program.