St. Jude at APHON

The NRP earned PTAP reaccreditation with distinction, and the case for it is in the numbers: 230% growth in applications and 98% retention at one year, well above the 80% national benchmark. ANCC specifically called out two things the program does well: goals and outcomes are built in from the start, not bolted on, and there's a real succession pipeline, not just a training track.

That structure is now flexible enough to extend into non-traditional settings. In 2025, NRP expanded into Procedures, perianesthesia and procedural care within Surgical Services, a setting with its own skill set (rapid assessment, airway management, recovery care) that doesn't map onto a standard inpatient orientation. The team built a dedicated orientation model rather than forcing procedural nurses through the general curriculum, and that same model is now reusable for inpatient nurses transferring into PACU.

CAP earned Advanced Practice Provider Fellowship Accreditation (APPFA) with distinction in 2023, one of a small number of programs nationally offering a structured transition specifically for new graduate PAs and NPs. Ten APPs have completed it. Every fellow has demonstrated independent practice by graduation, every fellow has stayed employed at the institution one year out, and every preceptor has met or exceeded program standards on learner evaluations.

The 2025 fellows pushed the model further by teaching into it. Graduates are now presenting in the didactic series, briefing nurse residents on oncologic emergencies and palliative care, and building specialty content for their own teams. The fellowship isn't just producing independent APPs anymore, it's producing people who train the next cohort.