Program Evaluation of a Fellowship for Advanced Practice Providers

Introduction:

The evaluated fellowship is a one year post-graduate program for APPs specializing in community-focused psychiatry. Purpose: The purpose of this DNP project is to evaluate the Community-Focused Psychiatry Fellowship for Advanced Practice Providers based on the metrics of knowledge and satisfaction.

Method:

Knowledge and satisfaction were compared between APPs that have and have not completed the fellowship. A knowledge based multiple-choice exam was selected to measure knowledge. The Misener Nurse Practitioner Job Satisfaction Scale (Misener, 2000) was used to measure satisfaction.

Results:

The results of the Wilcoxon signed rank test shows there is a significant difference between the pre and post scores for the fellows. The Mann Whitney U Test was unable to detect a statistical difference between the fellow’s scores and the comparison group, however the mean exam score for the fellows was higher than the non-fellows. The APPs surveyed had moderate to high levels of job satisfaction, with the mean score for fellows being higher than non-fellows.

Conclusions:

This DNP project was expected to provide evidence that the fellowship supports role transition and improves satisfaction and knowledge. The project demonstrated the ability of the fellowship to improve knowledge and support high levels of satisfaction. The mean scores for the post-exam and satisfaction scale were higher than the comparison group, but statistical significance was not found.