| Learning Objective #1: Analyze and evaluate the opportunities, risks, and challenges of a partnership between nurse practitioner programs and managed care organizations | |||
| Learning Objective #2: Incorporate managed care competencies into nurse practitioner program curricula by utilizing a partnership model between nurse practitioner programs and managed care organizations |
Purpose: From 1999-2001 the Partnerships for Quality Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation supported a collaboration between the Nurse Practitioner (NP) program at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, School of Nursing and Health New England Health Plan (HNE), Springfield, MA and its affiliated clinical sites. This paper describes the outcomes of this partnership and model for enhancing NP program curricula. Method: Within the context of a research seminar, NP students were divided among three educational intervention groups with varying extent of access to managed care theory, administrative and clinical experiences within the HNE plan. Data Analysis, Findings and Implications: Qualitative analysis and scores of students’ perceptions of managed care competency and attitudes towards managed care revealed a greatly expanded understanding of managed care that challenged previous beliefs among the full intervention group which benefited from classroom, intensive administrative experiences and a year long preceptorship in managed care settings. This group reported greater satisfaction with project participation, developed mentoring relationships, had unique “behind the scenes” experiences in an MCO, and an unprecedented opportunity to develop their leadership skills in articulating the NP role to a managed care organization (MC0). They more fully interacted with the “human face” of managed care and learned that a collaborative, rather than an adversarial relationship with an MCO produces better outcomes for patients and providers, lessons that facilitated their transition to the NP role, and continue to guide their practice as graduates two years later.
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