The North Georgia Advanced Practice Program (NoGAPP) Residency is accepting applications for the 2020 inaugural cohort. This one-year residency, supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), and undertaken in partnership with MedLink Georgia, an FQHC serving more than 13 counties in northeast Georgia, provides new primary care nurse practitioner (PCNPs) with structured clinical experiences and adjusted patient loads to enhance the transition into practice in rural and underserved communities. Residents will have experiences in both adult and pediatric primary care, as well as women’s health, behavioral health, and substance abuse services. In addition to experiencing diverse clinical settings and patients, specially developed learning modules are provided to help enhance clinical reasoning, motivational interviewing, management of opioid use disorders, and many other topics of particular relevance to practice in these communities. Time is also built into the residents’ schedules to participate in case conferences and quality improvement activities. At the end of the residency, PCNPs will be fully productive members of the interprofessional care team, managing their patients and time with confidence and competence.
Residents will be employed full time by MedLink with a goal of continuing their employment when the residency is completed. Residents can expect the following for the duration of the residency year:
- A collaborative, supportive environment provides already highly-skilled, licensed APRNs with greater confidence
- Variable patient panel size, starting with light loads early in the residency and adjusting upwards as residents’ skill and comfort levels grow
- Full medical benefits
- Paid leave
- Continuing education opportunities
- Eligible for loan reimbursement if hired in FQHC setting after residency completion
Funding for the NoGAPP residency is provided in part by the Health Resources and Services Administration, HRSA 19-001. NoGAPP is a collaboration between Emory University’s Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing and MedLink Georgia, a federally qualified health center serving 26 counties in North Georgia. MedLink provides family medicine and internal medicine services as well as occupational health; in selected locations MedLink provides behavioral health services, dental, obstetric and OB/GYN services. MedLink is committed to providing a robust learning environment during the residency and will offer employment to compatible residents upon completion of the residency.
