Clear Impact logo

Improve Vermonters' access to appropriate health services and 1 more... less...

Vermonters are healthy

Primary Care Provider FTEs per 100,000 Vermonters - Nurse Practitioners

Current Value

37.7

2017

Definition

Line Bar

Story Behind the Curve

As of the 2017 APRN Survey, there were 617 APRNs working in Vermont. They also report that 81% of APRNs are Nurse Practitioners, up from 77% in 2015. 53% of those APRNs worked in primary care.

The average age of working APRNs is 50 years, ranging from 26 to 82 years. Of all APRNs, 21% are credentialed for Family Medicine (all ages), 19% for Adult Medicine and 7% for Psychiatry/Mental Health. As for practice settings, 43% of APRN’s are working in a physician/APRN practice, 12% in hospital outpatient, 8% in hospital inpatient, and 8% in community health centers. The remaining APRNs work in group or solo independent practices or other settings.

Visit http://www.uvm.edu/medicine/ahec/Reports to download workforce reports.

As with Physicians and Physician Assistants, Nurse Practitioners are not equally distributed around the state. When we combine FTEs for all three professions, we see that the areas of greatest needs for all primary care providers are groups of towns around Waitsfield, Waterbury, Hardwick, and Ludlow.

Why Is This Important?

The total number, hours of patient care and geographic distribution of healthcare professionals is critical data for determining health professional shortage areas (HPSAs) and priority geographic regions for recruitment and retention incentives such as educational loan repayment resources from federal and state funds.

This indicator is part of Healthy Vermonters 2020 (the State Health Assessment) that documents the health status of Vermonters at the start of the decade and the population health indicators and goals that will guide the work of public health through 2020. Click here for more information.

Partners

Recruitment and retention incentives

What Works

Healthcare organizations are major employers in many of Vermont’s small communities, and healthcare careers can be provide good wages and salaries for many positions.

The Vermont AHEC Network offers a variety of programs to increase awareness and interest in a wide range of health care careers, including primary care nurse practitioners, among high school and college students in Vermont. These program include MedQuest and College Quest, Shadow Days in practices, Student Career Days and other efforts.

UVM's Area Health Education Center (AHEC) program office and regional AHECs manage and distribute the state-appropriated Educational Loan Repayment Program (ELRP) awards for Primary Care Providers (MDs, DOs, NPs, CNMs, PAs, Psychiatrists), Dentists, Nurses and Nurse Faculty. https://www.uvm.edu/medicine/ahec/.

Beginning in the 2015-16 educational loan repayment (ELR) cycle we decided to shift emphasis additional funds to incentives for Psychiatric APRNs, especially those working in the state psychiatric hospital.

The Vermont/New Hampshire Recruitment Center, a program of Bi-State Primary Care Association, works with Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), Rural Health Clinics (RHCs) and others to recruit physicians and other providers to work in under-served areas of Vermont. http://www.bistatepca.org/recruitmen-center.

Strategy

VDH will continue to work with partners identified here as well as hospitals, FQHCs and others to coordinate recruitment and retention efforts and incentives for primary care professionals. VDH manages the loan repayment programs through AHEC, VSAC and National Health Service Corps (NHSC).

We will continue to collect data from key healthcare professions every two years, pursue federal Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs) designations for eligible geographic regions and target our limited state and federal resources to geographic areas and specialties with greatest needs.

Similar to statewide efforts, local partners are using data to drive local strategy. For regional data on access to health indicators, check out our Public Health Data Explorer.

Notes on Methodology

The total number, hours of patient care and geographic distribution of healthcare professionals is critical data for determining health professional shortage areas (HPSAs) and priority geographic regions for recruitment and retention incentives such as educational loan repayment resources from federal and state funds.

This indicator is part of Healthy Vermonters 2020 (the State Health Assessment) that documents the health status of Vermonters at the start of the decade and the population health indicators and goals that will guide the work of public health through 2020. Click here for more information.

Clear Impact Suite is an easy-to-use, web-based software platform that helps your staff collaborate with external stakeholders and community partners by utilizing the combination of data collection, performance reporting, and program planning.

Scorecard Container Measure Action Actual Value Target Value Tag S A m/d/yy m/d/yyyy