Facilitators and barriers to the novice nurse practitioner workforce transition in primary care

Abstract

Background and purpose: 

Little is known about the facilitators and barriers to the workforce transition of novice nurse practitioners (NPs) in primary care. This research aimed to identify factors contributing and detracting from a successful initial workforce transition for novice NPs in the primary care setting.

Methods: 

A descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted via online survey administered to a national sample of 177 NPs who graduated from an accredited NP program and were practicing in a primary care setting for 3–12 months. Open-ended responses were analyzed using the Krippendorff content analysis method.

Conclusions: 

This study demonstrated that facilitators of the novice NP transition are the presence of mentorship and social support, finding meaning in their work, job satisfaction, and work–life balance. Barriers to the novice NP transition are lack of support and respect, role ambiguity, and workload.

Implications for practice: 

More mentorship, support, role clarity, and respect are needed to facilitate the novice NP workforce transition. More research is needed on interventions that can be implemented by health care organizations to improve the facilitators of role transition identified in this study.