Advanced Practice Provider Leadership Advisory Group’s Principles for Successful Leadership Models

The Advanced Practice Provider (APP) Leadership Advisory Group began as a grassroots conversation — APPs and AHA representatives recognizing that traditional physician and nurse leadership models often don’t capture the unique scope and strategic potential of APP roles. They quickly saw an opportunity to address a gap in the field and support a large, growing segment of the workforce more effectively.

A national team of actively practicing APP leaders was convened to reflect multiple disciplines, geographies and health systems. That dialogue generated four core themes for APP leadership structures: foundational role clarity and value articulation; infrastructure supports including connections and analytics; key leadership responsibilities and executive positioning; and scalable steps for sustainable implementation.

Why the APP Leadership Structure Principles were created

The Leadership Structure Principles form the core themes into a practical, adaptable framework. The principles assist hospitals and health systems in developing and maintaining the necessary policies, procedures and infrastructure to support the increasing contributions of APPs to care delivery. They help APPs align with organizational strategy, define leadership accountability and embed APP perspectives into governance.

Putting the principles into practice

• Foundational elements help educate internal stakeholders about APP roles and organizational value. Leaders can use these elements to map responsibilities across settings as well as quantify APP impact on safety, quality, access and financial metrics.
• Infrastructure support can create a leadership structure that is built on data to support operations and ensure strong onboarding and ongoing development for the team.
• Key leadership roles help position the APP leader as an executive-level partner with oversight of budget, workforce strategy, credentialing, peer review and operational management.
• Scalability ensures that any hospital or health system can adapt the principles to their needs by outlining the key elements for organizations and their circumstances.

Taken together, these principles offer a pragmatic, adaptable roadmap for engagement across the full care team and supporting APPs as unique providers within that team — improving collaboration, patient-centered care, operational efficiency and experience while allowing hospitals and systems to scale structures to meet their needs.

The APP Leadership Structure Principles are a beginning, not an endpoint. The APP Leadership Advisory Group will continue developing tools and resources to help organizations meaningfully integrate APPs into strategy, governance and everyday clinical leadership.

Michelle Schweitzer, DNP, CPNP-AC
Executive Director of Advanced Practice Providers, WakeMed Health and Hospitals

Dawn Mutchko, DNP, APRN
Principal Consultant, AdVantage Advanced Practice Consulting