California is in a critical primary care shortage. In 2018 an estimated 45% of Californians had insufficient access to a primary care provider. This lack of access leads to increased morbidity, mortality and cost of care. This shortage is reflected in my own organization Neighborhood Health Care, an FQHC in San Diego. To effectively care for all of our assigned patients, we needed to expand our current workforce by 20%.

In 2020 we attempted to recruit clinicians, but numerous positions remained vacant for months, with no physician or experienced advanced practitioner applicants. There were, however, numerous new-graduate advanced practitioner applicants. These candidates were enthusiastic and mission-oriented but lacked experience and suffered disruptions in their training due to COVID.

In my CHIP I developed a training program to prepare recently graduated advanced practitioners to care for our complex patient population. The Advanced Practitioner Training Academy (APTA) focuses on providing high quality, evidence-based primary care, an excellent patient experience and easy access to appointments. Training consisted of precepted continuity clinics, specialty rotations and didactic sessions.