Defining and standardizing the role of advanced practice provider educators: A survey of advanced practice education and professional development specialists

Nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) play a vital role in health care delivery. To meet growing health care demands, NPs and PAs have increased levels of autonomy, face early productivity expectations, and care for increasingly complex patients. This paper aims to describe, define, and standardize the role of the advanced practice education and professional development specialist across organizations. Using survey methodology, an anonymous survey was emailed to an informal group of advanced practice educators. The survey was sent out three times over approximately 8 weeks, with the last survey sent after the annual National Association of Pediatric NPs meeting. Of the 24 survey respondents, there were 13 different titles. Most respondents (75%) had worked as an APP for over 10 years. Most providers in educator roles were new to the position; 33% had been in the role for less than 1 year, and 29% for 1-3 years. Fifty percent of respondents were matrixed to the entire health system, whereas 42% stated their work is delineated to a specific department. Only 17% of survey respondents felt that leaders at their organization understood their role as advanced practice educators. As advanced practice leadership roles become more formalized with focused initiatives, including onboarding, student placement, and professional development, the educator and professional development role must be clearly defined. Standardizing the title and role responsibilities of the educator and professional development specialist is crucial to supporting a robust, engaged, and expert workforce, thus improving provider and family satisfaction and quality of care.