Bridging the Gap: Primary Care and Specialty Care Courses for Nurse Practitioners - Need Your Input!

Jul 11

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Even though we learn so much in school, our learning in medicine never stops. Resources like Up-to-Date and Dynamed can be helpful, but sometimes we need specific courses for nurse practitioners in primary care. I don’t know about you, but often continuing education programs that are made for “everyone” (physicians, PAs, NPs practicing in the clinic, hospital, etc) can feel like we’re wading through lots of irrelevant fluff or topics that aren’t pertinent to our clinical practice.

Supporting the Transition to Practice

Becoming a new NP is a steep learning curve. Even though we pass our boards and get our licenses, the transition to practice usually takes about three years for most NPs to feel fully competent and confident our their roles. It’s hard enough to navigate, so having the right kind of support means everything. Team Real World NP and I want to help bridge the gap between graduation and feeling competent as a clinician.

Expanding the Course Catalog: A Collaborative Approach

Part of bridging that gap is expanding the course catalog at Real World NP! We started with the first courses— the Lab Interpretation Crash Course and Diabetes, Hypertension & CKD Management Course— based on the needs and requests of the new NPs in our community and across the internet. Over the last 5 years we’ve supported around 10,000+ students!

The vision for our next phase, is to develop a more comprehensive course catalog by collaborating with specialists from various fields. By working with specialists in areas like cardiology, pulmonology, infectious disease (we want them all, of course!), we’re going to develop courses that are built on their clinical expertise, but tailored to what nurse practitioners in primary care need— comprehensive, concise, practical, without the fluff (as always).

Why This Matters

As primary care providers, we often act as the first point of contact for patients— as a Jack, Jill, Jae of all trades, but masters of none. We need a broad knowledge base, the ability to triage and manage a wide range of conditions. I know I’ve felt frustrated and overwhelmed by the pressure, especially when it comes to knowing when and how to refer patients to specialists — and most other clinicians I know feel the same. Hearing directly from them and translated into what’s relevant to primary care providers will help us take the best care of our patients and work together better!

We Need Your Input!

We absolutely value the input of the Real World NP community NPs, PAs and students. As the course catalog expands, I want you to share what you’d like to see most first. Whether you’re struggling with cardiology, dermatology, or another specialty, your feedback will help prioritize which new courses matter to you most.

Fill out the courses for nurse practitioners survey here!

If you liked this post, also check out:

Liz Rohr (they/she) (00:00)
Hey there. So I was writing an email and then I realized I had a lot of things I wanted to say. So I decided to record an episode just briefly. So I'm in the middle of making some new episodes for the podcast and the YouTube channel. I have a couple of interviews I've recorded already and a couple of other things that I'm working on. So I'm still in between seasons before that's ready to go live. But.
I wanted to hop in here and talk about some behind the scenes plans that we have at Real World NP that I would love your contribution on. So I started Real World NP in 2019. As a nurse practitioner myself, I was really frustrated with that transition to practice. This phenomenon that I've seen over time is that people graduate from grad school having like, you know, they pass their boards, they have their license, like they're ready to go, but they just feel this frustration. And it takes about three years to get to a place of,
feeling like, you know what, I really, I got this. And that's a bell curve, right? Because some people hit the three year mark and they're like, no, still no. It's taking me about five years to get to that place. And then some people will get there sooner. But from what I've heard from other clinicians is that typically around three years, there's like a, it's like a light switch that happens. It's a slow and gradual process, but there's something that happens around that three year mark that's pretty special. And you're like, wow, okay, I think I got the hang of this already.
So anyway, the mission for real world NP is to be a support structure resource for new nurse practitioners entering the real world. And while they're in the middle of that three year transition, like how do we prevent, how do we help prevent burnout if we can, right? I've talked a lot about burnout and a lot of reasons for that, which you can look at all on the blog, but without getting too sidetracked, I guess what I wanted to share is that it's the same kind of mission and vision.
for real world NP, but what I'm looking to do in the next coming months, years is to really expand our course catalog options. So, so far it's really just been me as the primary educator with some mentors and supportive nurse practitioners here and there. But what I've acknowledged is that while I would love to create an entire course catalog of my own accord, it's just not possible.
And so, and actually I'm really excited about this other alternative option that I've thought about and actually it's a much better option, I think. And so yeah, so I'd love your thoughts on it and I would love your input. But anyway, the plan is that we're really gonna expand our course catalog offerings. But the way that we're gonna do it and is actually the true way that I've wanted to do it in my heart of hearts since the beginning of starting this company is that what I really have wanted this whole time as a primary care provider is,
I really just want to know all the specialists. Like I want to know a specialist that I know and trust and I get along with in every single specialty so that I can ask them all my questions, basically. Right? I really want to connect primary care to specialists. Like there's a core issue there of like in primary care, we are like, you know, Jack, Jill, Jay of all trades and master of none. And yet we're kind of like a triage. We hold primary care, but we're also triaging for all the different specialties.
and we're trying to like bridge that gap in between, but it's like, I don't know about you, but I think for me this whole entire time I've been a nurse practitioner, it's been a little bit uncomfortable of like, am I ordering the right stuff before I send them there? Are there additional things that they would like for me to work up? Are there pet peeves that they have that the things that they wish we would do in primary care? So I've tried to address that challenge so far by having specialist interviews on the podcast and the YouTube channel.
But the next iteration of our steps forward, and this is very much still in progress, but this is the vision, this is the goal. Maybe something will totally change and this won't come to fruition, which I'm trying to give myself that permission to see where things go. As attached I am as I am to wanting to do this and share it with y 'all. And for myself, if I'm being honest, I'm a little selfish here too. Anyway, the moral of this story here is that I'm gonna be expanding the course catalog, that is the plan.
I'm gonna be doing so in collaboration with specialists. So I'm a primary care provider, a family nurse practitioner. I'm looking to collaborate with physicians and nurse practitioners and PAs who are in other specialties so that when it comes to, for example, urology, I'm gonna collaborate with them, we'll come up with some sort of very directed teaching in the same style of that I teach, is choosing someone that I trust.
that has been vetted, that knows their stuff, that is excited to teach. And we're going to co -create some courses where we're still going to be delivering the same things that we want to know. What do we want to know of? What do we need to know about each of those specialties? So if we're talking about urology, for example, my goal is when we're thinking about a patient who has urgent incontinence or some type of urinary incontinence or nocturia, how do we best manage that and support them in primary care?
And what are the things that primary, that those specialists wish that we knew about each of those conditions taught to us in a way that's like the most helpful for primary care, right? And so anyway, so that's the moral of the story again, is collaborating with specialists, teaching in the same, like no fluff, get to the point, super practical teaching methodology, but like.
collaborating with them because as much as I would love to be a specialist in each of the specialties available in healthcare, like that's just not possible for any human to do. And so what my goal is here is that we can bring in the specialists, make the, I wanna just make the courses that I wish that I had, right? Of like, you know what, I wanna learn from a urologist all of these different things, or I wanna learn from a nephrologist what are all these different things that I wish that I knew.
As a primary care provider to number one, provide the best care that I can within my scope of primary care, know what those lines are for referral, especially when we're talking about like rural medicine or under -resourced communities, right? Or clinics. Like what are the things that I can do to really maximize this patient's care while also remaining within that same? Yeah, just like I'm not taking on the burden of the healthcare system for not having the resources to refer them to the right place.
Right, like it's not expanding the scope too far, but like how can we do our best job with the tools and resources that we have right now? So yeah, so I'm actually, I'm very excited about these next steps. I'm already in touch with a number of different specialists that I know and trust talking about how we can move forward in these steps because ultimately I hope that the organization itself can become ANCC accredited. Fingers crossed, again, these are all plans.
No guarantees. These are just things that I'm working on, but I would really love for the company to be accredited in general so that whatever courses we make will be, offered for continuing education credit. and then we can do some fun, like bundling stuff or like, I don't know. I just, I have a lot of different ideas. It's still in progress, but I'm telling you this because, I've really loved how so far when I started real world NP and as I continue to make things into the podcast and.
think about upcoming courses and products, I really do rely on the people in the community to share what they're struggling with and what is most important to them. So for example, the two courses that I have right now, one is lab interpretation, and then the other one is the diabetes, hypertension, and CKD course, which is the top main chronic conditions in primary care. And the reason I came to those two courses was because those were the most in demand. So what I would love is,
I would love to hear what your thoughts are. Like I would love to hear what you're struggling with, what specialties you would like to see prioritized, right? So if there was like a cardiology continuing education course, like is that the one that you're struggling with the most, right? Things like heart failure management and different rhythm management, stuff like that. Like what are those pieces that you're struggling with in primary care where you're like, man, I wish I could just learn from, I wish I could just learn more from the specialist about feeling more confident in this area.
I can name off the top of my head, I have a dermatologist that I'm trying very hard to bring in. Neurology I would love to bring in, cardiology, I always love reinforcement with that, right? So I know what I want, but I would love to hear what you want because, because yeah, I mean, one step at a time, I'd love to make all of them right now, but it's gonna be a process. So if you have opinions about what courses you would like to take, again, with the goal in mind that these are all going to be continuing education accredited.
I will have to see how it plays out depending on demand and stuff. Like when I first released the lab course, for example, it didn't have accreditation and then we ended up accrediting it afterwards. So anyway, there's a lot of open -ended stuff. There's no like guarantees here, but like my goal here is just to kind of describe the vision that I have. And I would really love for your input about...
If you want that, if you're feeling, wow, I really am looking for continuing education courses. I have this money to spend from my employer. I personally want to make stuff. I've had not great experience with continuing education in the past. And so that's one of the reasons why I'm so passionate about making the stuff that I kind of wish that I saw. Again, comprehensive, but also concise, without the fluff. That's really the main tenets of teaching that I want to bring to this space.
But yeah, if there are things that you're like, yeah, I just, I really want to learn about this topic and I've been frustrated with my experiences, stuff like that. I would love to hear from you. So if you're listening to this, this will be in the show notes. If you're watching this, it will be in the description. But yeah, I would love for you to fill out that survey link with, you know, what are the things that are your most priority for continuing education courses? And then what other kind of like suggestions, requests that you have.
but yeah, so I really appreciate you. we'll be back soon with some more podcasts and YouTube channel episodes. some really great interviews that I've already recorded and a couple more that I'm about to record. So, so stay tuned for that, but thanks so much for, for listening and would again, would really, really love your feedback.

Podcast

Liz Rohr