The Duke Advanced Practice Providers Leadership Institute (APPLI) is welcoming a new class of 19 fellows this month. The fellows are from diverse interprofessional backgrounds in health care and were chosen from across the United States. The one-year program is entirely virtual.
Fellows apply to the program as part of a team they form within their home institution, led by an advanced practice provider (APP). This year’s cohort consists of seven teams. Each team will create and implement a transformational health project that aims to provide more effective and efficient health care services to vulnerable populations and improve health equity. Projects can have a clinical, educational and/or advocacy focus.
“I am excited to see the fellows develop as leaders and create transformational projects that will have a profound impact on the communities they serve,” said Adriana Green, MEd, training coordinator for the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health.
Teams will work with their chosen health care partner for the duration of the project. Fellows will receive leadership and management training through monthly webinars, panels, and executive coaching along with a series of three weekend leadership web-conferences. The program also emphasizes the importance of stakeholder-engaged advocacy and sustainability of their projects; equity, diversity and inclusion; and project management.
The fellowship began with a web conference the weekend of June 10.
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Duke APPLI Program Celebrates Graduation of 39 Fellows
At a May 21 virtual ceremony, 39 fellows graduated from Duke’s Advanced Practice Provider Leadership Institute (APPLI), which is sponsored, in part, by Duke Health Chancellor’s Office.
The 2022-2023 class is composed of advanced practice providers like certified nurse midwives, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and physical therapists. They were paired in teams with other healthcare professionals like health administrators and medical instructional technologists. Half of the program fellows are based at Duke University, while others are based at health institutions like Boston Medical Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and University of Kansas Medical Center.
Graduates celebrate with a toast during a virtual ceremony.
During the one-year program, graduates developed projects to improve the health of patients, increase systems efficiency, and educate health professionals. The graduates were grouped into 15 teams and created and implemented projects to, for instance, improve the mental health of teens, develop a new approach to care for Black women with Lupus, and assess public information gaps in inflammatory breast cancer. Some projects have recently been the subject of recent articles.
Anne Derouin, DNP, APRN, CPNP-PC, PMHS, FAANP, introduces NC Senator Gale Adcock for keynote remarks.
North Carolina senator Gale Adcock served as a keynote speaker during the ceremony, while CEO of Duke University Health System Craig Albanese, MD, MBA, and Duke Chancellor for Health Affairs Eugene Washington, MD, MPH, MSc, provided remarks.
Anh Tran, PhD, MPH, director of APPLI and vice chief of education in the Division of Community Health in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health said in a message to fellows, “I hope that you will never stop exploring and finding ways to fuel your passions and be true to your values and follow your North Star.”
“I hope that along the way, after each exploration, you will be able to look back wherever you are at this moment and appreciate and understand your surroundings with better insight and more profound gratitude,” she continued.
Some fellows have earned appointments in their respective universities or promotions as a result of completing the program. Many of them plan to continue working on and implementing their health projects and advocating for health equity.
On May 31, 2023, Duke APPLI hosted a virtual welcome webinar that introduced the 19 fellows for the 2023-2024 program year. Krista Lebron and Jill Barbour were awarded the Dr. Rebecca Rogers’ Memorial Scholarship. Dr. Rogers’ daughter, Alexandria Gorda, presented the award to the team and gave beautiful, heart-felt remarks on behalf of her family.
Dr. Rogers passed away from IBC the summer of 2022. Serendipitously, the scholarship recipients are both breast oncology APN’s who have committed to bringing awareness to IBC by focusing their transformational project on this topic. Their work is a continuation of the IBC project of Duke APPLI alumna, Valerie Keck, nurse practitioner, and Dr. Gayathri Devi, Associate Professor at Duke University. The project is entitled “Assessing Awareness and Treatment Gaps of Inflammatory Breast Cancer in Diverse Population Groups by Surveying Patients of an Urban Academic Health Center” and focuses on identifying the awareness of IBC in the general population and amongst primary care physicians through a survey assessing current awareness of IBC, its risk factors, and presenting symptoms. The success of the survey will help develop future educational opportunities to increase community awareness of IBC with intent to decrease time to accurate diagnosis.
Krista and Jill both expressed their gratitude for the scholarship and look forward to continuing the work started on the IBC project by Duke APPLI alumna, Valerie Keck, NP and Gay Devi, PhD.
To learn more about the scholarship and Dr. Rogers’ legacy, click here: Duke APPLi Scholarships
To learn more about the Duke Consortium for IBC, click here.
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How I Became “The Health Equity NP”
Monday, June 05, 2023 by Juliette G. Blount, MSN, NP (Published originally by The Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action)
Juliette Blount, MSN, NP
“Patients’ stories of encountering bias while navigating health care systems and those of friends, family, and my own inspired me to apply to the Duke-Johnson & Johnson Nurse Leadership Program, now called –the Duke Advanced Practice Provider Leadership Institute (APPLI). Thankfully, in 2018, I was accepted as one of 30 nurse practitioners and midwives from across the United States in the career-changing one-year program. My program project focused on developing evidence-based continuing education content to address the lack of knowledge I experienced among my work colleagues. The signature presentations I created fill the gaps in most providers’ formative health care education curricula that most often exclude the topics of race, racism, and implicit bias. With the support of mentors and other equity-minded advanced practice nurses in my cohort, I decided to try to educate my colleagues and leaders within the organization rather than leave my job. Unfortunately, despite my efforts, the organization was not ready to take anti-racist action by supporting and implementing a comprehensive education program to improve health equity for all. So, at that point, it was time for me to leave.”
This is an excerpt from Ms. Blount’s blog published on June 5th by The Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action. We applaud Ms. Blount’s continued efforts and success in being a pioneer for health equity.
With generous funding support from Duke Health Chancellor’s Office, the Duke Advanced Practice Provider Leadership Institute (APPLI) Program is proud to announce the selection of our new cohort of fellows for the 2023-24 program year. The cohort includes 7 Advanced Practice Provider-led teams, which comprise a total of 19 program fellows from diverse healthcare professions. A key objective of the program is to provide leadership development opportunities for healthcare teams that will enable them to provide more effective and efficient healthcare services to vulnerable populations and to lead innovative health improvement initiatives for their organizations and communities. This year’s selected program fellows are named by team in this announcement, with names of APP team leaders in bold type. Their learning experience begins June 10th-11th during their first virtual web conference. We wish them well on their transformational journeys!
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2022-2023 Duke APPLI Program Fellows Graduate
Sunday, May 21, 2023
Congratulations fellows on the completion of your Duke APPLI program year! We are so proud of the work you have done on your transformational projects and look forward to seeing you flourish as leaders in healthcare.
Monday, February 20, 2023 by Mary Kate Llamas (Published originally in “Inside Duke Health”)
The Duke Advanced Practice Provider Leadership Institute (APPLI) is now accepting applications for the 2023-2024 season.
APPLI is a one-year leadership development fellowship for advanced practice providers (APPs) that offers individual and team leadership training as well as guidance and support of a team health improvement project during the course of the program year.
Teams consist of two to four members with an APP serving as the team lead. APPs include non-physician providers who have completed graduate education and training, such as APN, LCSW, OT, PA, PT and PharmD professionals. Other team members can include but are not required to be APPs. They can include other diverse healthcare-related professions, like MD, RN, MA, CNA, health administrator, health educator or community health workers. The composition of the team depends on the health improvement project that they would like to implement during the course of the program year.
The health improvement project should focus on clinical, health education, or community health improvement.
Examples of projects from the current year include:
Creating a day clinic for adult sickle cell patients to reduce the utilization of the Emergency Department.
Creating a plan to improve work culture among Duke HomeCare & Hospice team members who serve homebound individuals.
Implementing a resiliency curriculum within a school-based clinic with Durham Public Schools to address adolescent mental health challenges.
“We frequently hear from managers that the return on investment is incalculable,” said Anh N.Tran, PhD, MPH, Director of APPLI. “Sending a team from your department or unit demonstrates that you are invested in their professional development, it can improve work culture and employee retention and depending on the project, could improve efficiency, workflow and patient outcomes in your department or unit.”
All applications are due March 31, 2023. However, an early registration discount of $175 per team member is applied for any teams that apply by March 15, 2023.
The Division of Community Health in the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health is excited to announce the Dr. Rebecca Rogers Memorial Scholarship. The scholarship will be given to an Advanced Practice Provider team in the Duke Advanced Practice Provider Leadership Institute (APPLI) for the 2023-24 program year.
Rogers, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC, passed away unexpectedly in July 2022 from inflammatory breast cancer. This rare and aggressive form accounts for 1%-5% of all breast cancer diagnoses each year, according to the American Cancer Society. Rogers is an alumna of the inaugural cohort of the predecessor program to Duke APPLI, which launched in 2013.
The scholarship was created by a group of alumni in Dr. Rogers’ cohort to honor her legacy and support the mission of the program to cultivate impactful and diverse leaders in health care. Fellows in the program are taught to serve as agents of change to promote health equity and provide resources and advocate for underserved communities. Rogers said it was an honor to serve in areas of need and help guide and teach future nurse leaders.
The recipient of the scholarship must have served as an Advanced Practice Provider for at least two years and have an APPLI team project focused on addressing a social drive of health to improvehealth equity. Candidates from underrepresented, underserved or marginalized communities including, BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, men in nursing, etc., are strongly encouraged to apply. APPLI team applications must be submitted online and will be considered on a rolling basis. Selection will be based on the information shared in the APP team application.
Rogers was the director of the Doctor of Nursing Practice Program at the time of her passing. She is regarded as an accomplished academician, clinician, and leader in nursing. She leaves behind three children and four grandchildren.
2022-2023 Duke Advanced Practice Provider Leadership Institute (APPLI) Program Fellows Selected
Image from our Welcome Webinar in May
With generous funding support from Duke Health Chancellor’s Office, the Duke Advanced Practice Provider Leadership Institute (APPLI) Program is proud to announce the selection of our new cohort of fellows for the 2022-23 program year. The cohort includes 15 Advanced Practice Provider-led teams, which comprise a total of 36 program fellows from diverse healthcare professions. A key objective of the program is to provide leadership development opportunities for healthcare teams that will enable them to provide more effective and efficient healthcare services to vulnerable populations and to lead innovative health improvement initiatives for their organizations and communities. This year’s selected program fellows are named by team in this announcement, with names of APP team leaders in bold type. Congratulations to each of them, and we wish them an extraordinary learning experience!
Carolyn Bogan – Chestnut Hill, MA Rebecca White
Patrick Cacchio – Rougemont, NC Geraldine Kanne
Jessica Cerulli – Warwick, NY Margaret Canjura Ashley Linington
Christina Cone – Durham, NC Therese Hennig Kara Threatt
Christine Dorman – Melville, NY Kaci Costello Beatrice Forlizzi
Krysta Ramirez Henry – Warrensburg, MO Nellie Modaress Christy Evers
Sara Schedler – Elm Grove, WI Katie Eisele Erika Klitzke Jennifer Schuster
Leadership opportunity available to APPs and their teams
By: Morag MacLachlan, March 2, 2022 (Published originally in “Inside Duke Health”)
Jackie White, NP, a nurse practitioner with Duke breast surgery, received one of the pair’s well-bring interventions – a healthy snack with a note of gratitude.
Bernadette Labriola had always been focused on her coworkers’ well-being. The breast surgical oncology nurse practitioner completed the Duke Center for Healthcare Quality and Safety’s well-being ambassador program. She also joined the Duke Cancer Institute’s (DCI) well-being committee. And when she learned about a year-long leadership training for advanced practice provider-led teams, she embraced the opportunity to develop meaningful well-being interventions.
“It was such an enriching experience,” said Labriola, RN, MSN, FNP-C. “It gave me the chance to step outside of clinical care and receive the mentoring and team leadership training I needed to become a better clinician and coworker.”
The Duke Advanced Practice Provider Leadership Institute (APPLI) is accepting applications for its 2022-2023 cohort through Friday, April 1, 2022. This year-long program utilizes a flexible delivery approach, suitable for full-time professionals, which combines monthly distance-based learning activities, small-group project mentoring with experienced healthcare leadership, individual and group executive coaching sessions and weekend leadership development web-conferences. Teams will also develop and conduct a health improvement project that applies leadership and quality improvement techniques acquired throughout the program. Projects tend to have a clinical, educational or advocacy focus.
“APPs have the potential to be transformational change agents in health care,” said Anh Tran, PhD, MPH, director of the Duke APPLI. “We hope our program’s team training model empowers APPs and their teams to become the best versions of themselves.”
Up to 25 interprofessional healthcare teams will be selected to participate. Teams must be led by an APP and can include one or two additional team members. The additional team members do not have to be healthcare providers and can be community partner colleagues. The team’s composition should be based around the needs of the quality improvement or population health project. Operational costs for this robust professional development opportunity are supported, in part, by sponsorship from the Duke Health Chancellor’s Office.
Labriola applied to the program with Meg Helsley, MSN, APRN, AOCNS, an oncology clinical nurse specialist at Duke who is also passionate about supporting her colleagues’ well-being. They analyzed data from a DCI APP practice and work culture survey and focused on the responses from a smaller group of breast oncology multispecialty practice APPs. They paid particular attention to how APPs rated workday stress levels, burnout experiences and overall job satisfaction. The pair then developed interventions and evaluated their effectiveness. They discovered that interventions embedded in the workday, like surprising an APP with their favorite coffee, were more impactful than asking APPs to gather outside of work, like for a group yoga class.
“This team project gave me the opportunity to get to know my colleagues better,” said Labriola. “I couldn’t have done it without the support of the DCI leadership.” The year-long distance learning program will begin in June 2022 and end in May 2023. For more information, visit https://bit.ly/DukeAPPLI-Info.
Dr. Rogers passed away from IBC the summer of 2022. Serendipitously, the scholarship recipients are both breast oncology APN’s who have committed to bringing awareness to IBC by focusing their transformational project on this topic. Their work is a continuation of the IBC project of Duke APPLI alumna, Valerie Keck, nurse practitioner, and Dr. Gayathri Devi, Associate Professor at Duke University. The project is entitled “Assessing Awareness and Treatment Gaps of Inflammatory Breast Cancer in Diverse Population Groups by Surveying Patients of an Urban Academic Health Center” and focuses on identifying the awareness of IBC in the general population and amongst primary care physicians through a survey assessing current awareness of IBC, its risk factors, and presenting symptoms. The success of the survey will help develop future educational opportunities to increase community awareness of IBC with intent to decrease time to accurate diagnosis.
