Dear Editor:
I write in response to Margaret Flinter’s article on residency programs for primary care Nurse Practitioners. I support a residency program in the path to a nursing doctorate for NP’s. A residency could be easily incorporated into the already existing clinical experience required by most MSN-NP programs and would strengthen the NP’s case for autonomy and reimbursement more so than would additional preparation in theory and research. I am a Nurse Practitioner (NP) who graduated two years ago, after 30 years of nursing practice in multiple areas. Yet the one experience I missed in graduate school was a true residency, a place to truly hone the skills I had acquired during my academic preparation. I believe a residency program would be especially valuable for those nurses who go directly from a BSN to MSN-NP program. Such a program would allow the new NP to more fully master recently obtained knowledge and skills through working side-by-side with a mentor for a period of one year. To not include a residency in the doctoral preparation of NPs would be to lose an invaluable opportunity to raise the qualifications and status of NPs nationwide, and perhaps worldwide.
Jim Guynns,RN MSN FNP-C
Urgent Care NP
New Mexico
guyjim34@yahoo.com