According to the 2022 Health Professional Shortage Areas statistics, there is a shortage of 653 primary care providers in Arizona alone. In order to address the shortage in healthcare professionals and provide valuable hands-on training, NOAH has created the Community Health Immersion Program (CHIP).
The CHIP was designed to support new graduates from advanced practitioner programs (nurse practitioners or physician assistants) with additional training in the field as they begin their careers in community health. The goal of the program is to provide direct supervision and clinical support to increase efficiency, improved clinical outcomes, and provider confidence in their skills as healthcare providers in the community health center setting.
The program began earlier this month with the onboarding of six first-year advanced practitioners; half of which are assigned to Desert Mission Health Center and the other half to Palomino Health Center. The clinical component consists of four half-days of access to experienced clinicians (both physicians and established advanced practitioners ) for direct supervision and clinical support. CHIP participants have the opportunity to discuss cases with experienced NOAH clinicians and bring these clinicians along to their encounters to help with the evaluation and management of current patients. Additionally, each new advanced practitioner will also have five half-days of independent clinic, where they will see patients on their own.
The intent of this new program is to identify the struggles and barriers impeding the success of recent advanced practice graduates. In order to better prepare for the complex and diverse patient challenges seen within the FQHC setting, the curriculum of the program is aimed to help educate and highlight patient resources, as well as build more confident and competent clinicians.
