Primary Care Nurse Practitioner Residency Program
The VA Western Colorado Healthcare System Nurse Practitioner Residency Program is a twelve-month post-graduate primary care training program located in Grand Junction Colorado. By providing intensive clinical experiences supplemented by inter-professional development curriculum, we prepare new graduate nurse practitioners to deliver high-quality, compassionate, and patient-centered care in a complex primary care population, to function assuming full-practice authority (FPA) as nurse practitioners.
Our Mission
To develop competent, confident, practice-ready NPs equipped with the knowledge and skills to address the specific needs of our nation's Veterans served by the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) and community.
Salary and Benefits
- Generous stipend paid over 12 months, plus benefits including federal health insurance
- Accrual of 4 hours of Annual leave and 4 hours of Sick leave per pay period
- Eleven Paid Federal Holidays
- Eligibility for Health Insurance Benefits
Eligibility
To be eligible for the program, applicants must meet the following criteria:
- US Citizen by birth or naturalization
- Fluent in Written and Spoken English
- Graduated from an NLN or CCNE accredited Nurse Practitioner Program between July 1 of previous year - June 15 of current year. Can not have held a position as a NP previously
- Certification as an Adult, Gerontology, Primary Care, or Family Nurse Practitioner
- Hold a current, full, and unrestricted License as an NP (may start without this however MUST have within 90 days of residency start date)
- Submit to background check, physical exam and random drug testing
- Am I Eligible? Checklist for VA HPTs
Residency Details
The residency offers new graduates the opportunity to strengthen clinical competence and confidence as a primary care nurse practitioner. Nurse practitioner residents will lead an interdisciplinary team to manage a dedicated patient panel with structured mentor guidance and progressive level of autonomy. Together, residents will attend didactics, work on a quality improvement project, and provide care for Veterans using a patient centered approach. Clinical rotations will be within the Western Slope VA Healthcare system, inclusive of its surrounding Community Based Out-Patient Clinics (CBOCs).
How to Apply
Application Process
To apply for this residency program, you must submit the following documents to:
Primary Care NP Director
Robert Rogers, FNP-C at Robert.Rogers5@va.gov
Place in the subject line: Applicant’s Last then First Name - Applicant NPR 2024
Example: Rogers, Robert - Applicant NPR 2024
- Current Curriculum Vitae or Resume
- A one-page narrative describing why you are interested in postgraduate training in the VA Health Care System, and your future career goals
- Three letters of recommendation, at least one from a current or past professional peer, and at least one from your graduate academic program
- All applicants must submit to a background screening, physical exam, drug testing and credentialing verification of education and employment to be a part of the VA Federal System
Timeline
Application period: October 1 to January 1
Interviews scheduled: Late January to Early February (Date to be determined)
Residency Period: July of current year to the July of the following year
Documents must be received by the first of January to be considered. Please send an email request to Robert.Rogers5@va.gov if requesting to apply after this timeframe.
Live Q&A Session: December 11 at 1:30 p.m. MST, please send email to request an invite.
Selection Process
Applicants will be reviewed and rated. An offer for an interview will be extended to the strongest applicants. Three offers will be extended by email as soon as committee consensus is reached and references have been contacted, ideally no later than March 1. Those candidates that are not ranked in the top three may be waitlisted. Once an email offer is made, applicants will be asked to accept or decline. Positions may be held for 72 hours but we ask you notify us of a decision as soon as feasible. These applicants then must complete federal application documents and undergo eligibility verification.
Program Goals and Expected Outcomes
- Provide a twelve-month long supervised training program for new graduate nurse practitioners during their first year of practice and enhance the recruitment and retention of new graduate nurse practitioners.
Expected outcome: 66% (2/3 in each cohort) of nurse practitioner residents will complete the full duration of the twelve-month long program, excluding health or family emergencies.
- Promote confidence in the role of a MH or PC nurse practitioner and the development of both core and specialty competency areas in advanced practice nursing through a combination of structured didactics, learning activities and diverse clinical rotations.
Expected outcome: Confidence in practice scores will increase for all enrolled residents from month one to month twelve of the program.
Expected outcome: Nurse practitioner residents will meet competency benchmarks (receipt of at least an “advanced beginner” rating) in 75% of the performance criteria within each competency domain by the end of the program.
- Provide a training program that is enriched with opportunity for scholarly inquiry through mentorship of an evidence-based quality improvement project.
Expected outcome: Nurse practitioner residents will successfully develop and complete an evidence-based practice (EBP) improvement project (individually, or as team with other trainees) and present recommendations to the interprofessional faculty committee, interprofessional trainee cohorts, and key stakeholders by the end of the program.
Expected outcome: Nurse practitioner residents will successfully demonstrate understanding of nursing as both a practice and scientific discipline driven by the need for emerging knowledge gained through scholarly inquiry by successful completion of the EBP.
Commonly Asked Questions
Our residents have a 4-day work week (10 hours a day) to simulate a full patient load on “in clinic” days. Monday, Wednesday morning, and Thursday are dedicated to managing your patient panel with face to face, phone, and video appointments. Tuesdays are spent in a variety of specialty clinics. Wednesday afternoons are utilized for a variety of didactic sessions.
Resident patient panels are designed to have an equal amount of complex disease processes. Panel sizes were created to achieve the desired patient contacts (appointments) of 600 to 750 during the program. Panels vary in size between 300 to 400 Veterans. The resident class of 2023/2024 averaged 643 billable patient contacts with 5.5 diagnoses on average per contact.
Each resident has a dedicated mentor (provider) to guide you on your journey to full-practice authority. The panel also has a dedicated RN and LPN. During “in clinic” days, one of the mentors works with residents during their patient encounters.
There will be some shadowing involved, the programs goal is not for you to practice independently in specialty rotations. On Tuesdays, to augment your learning experience, residents are expected to be involved in procedures and patient care. You will find yourself performing an I&D, aspirating a joint, explaining a PFT, and so much more under subject matter specialist supervision.
No. One of our top priorities is to prepare our NP residents for VA employment and facilitate retention, but the program does not guarantee employment.
No. As a current VA employee, you may apply but to become a resident trainee, you will have to resign your VA position during the residency. Further, the VA training year does not count towards your VA employee work years, seniority, or retirement.
As a former employee who completes the residency, you are not guaranteed a VA position upon completion, but you will have a valuable one year of VA NP primary care experience. We are happy to report that some former VA employee resident graduates have secured VA NP positions. Others are doing very well in the community.
Full prescriptive authority is not required to get into the program. When you get your provisional license, you can prescribe all but scheduled medications at the WCHCS VA. We prefer that you get Colorado licensure. Once you are accepted for the program, residents can use the program director as their prescriptive preceptor to get their provisional RX license. The hours required to gain full authority should be met during your residency (depending on state, our program provides 2080 hour of prescriptive supervision). Once you start the program you will be asked to apply for your DEA license and you will be able to prescribed scheduled medications once this level of autonomy is obtained.
No. The residency is a trainee stipend position, not VA employment. As an NNEI with an obligation, you may not apply for the Residency program.
No. Currently we only offer start date in July. NP residents must complete the full year (2080 hours) to successfully complete the residency.
The residency offers a competitive stipend, including benefits, to enable residents the ability to focus on the training. Moonlighting is discouraged as it tends to diminish the learning experience.
Your main preceptor will be in Primary Care. Specialty rotations include, but not limited to, Cardiology, Pulmonology, Urology, Orthopedics, Podiatry, Mental Health, Surgical Procedures, Gynecology, Emergency Medicine, Hospitalist Medicine, Pharmacy, Dietary/Nutrition, and more.
Compensation varies year to year due to cost-of-living adjustments.