Novice Nurse Practitioner Workforce Transition Into Primary Care: A Literature Review

The purpose of this integrative review was to analyze the current state of the science related to the novice nurse practitioner (NP) transition into primary care. A systematic review of the literature was conducted using the databases Pubmed, MEDLINE, Ovid, and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) with the terms nurse practitioner, role, and transition to search articles published after 1997. Three major themes emerged from the literature related to the novice NP transition into primary care. These themes were categorized as experiencing role ambiguity, quality of professional and interpersonal relationships, and facing intrinsic and extrinsic obstacles. Strategies to reduce role ambiguity, improve the quality of professional relationships, and mitigate extrinsic obstacles faced by novice NPs may improve their transition into the primary care workforce. Educational institutions, employers, and novice NPs all have a stake in the successful transition from student to primary care practitioner and should be engaged in developing effective NP transition-to-practice programs.