Nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) continue to be an integral part of the interventional radiology care team, bravely serving the health care community alongside their physician counterparts during a time of uncertainty. While the pandemic persists, we push ahead to provide patient care and enhance departmental productivity despite the challenges. Nationally, IR continues to be a fast-growing employment specialty for advanced practice providers (APPs).
The SIR NP/PA Section was established in 2017 to enable APPs to achieve their professional goals, serve as a resource to the SIR Executive Council and provide a forum that encourages exchange of information, increasing expertise in patient and procedural care. Providing a pathway for professional development within the organization helps to facilitate the development of evidence-based education and distribution of the most up-to-date research on best-practice measures. Through these pathways, steady enrollment and involvement of APPs in IR should increase and collegial expectations of practice and interaction for service standards across IR departments should thrive nationally.
Current APP membership within SIR is approximately 200 and growing. APPs in IR are required to have a diverse scope of practice that can include clinical, procedural, academic and research-related responsibilities. Therefore, there is an unmet need for national standards regarding education, clinical practice and procedures. This lack of standards can impact reimbursement and billing practices and lead to difficulty hiring appropriate staff.
The NP/PA Section continues to support several committees dedicated to a specific arm of the vision.
Membership
To strengthen the section, increasing SIR membership and encouraging section participation is key. This continues to be a priority within the NP/PA Section and is being accomplished through outreach within the APP community to better understand barriers to membership. Robust conversations are ongoing about addressing these barriers, including requirements to join. This committee is working hard to increase social media presence through Twitter and SIR Connect, implementing welcome letters to new members and utilizing Mentor Match to connect with APPs entering the IR workforce. Building APP representation in existing SIR sections and committees is an invaluable way to be a part of the voice of APPs in interventional radiology.
Annual Meeting
The Annual Meeting Committee continues to work hard to develop dedicated programming for the NP and PA attendees of the SIR Annual Scientific Meeting, in both didactic and hands-on workshop format. The annual meeting creates a collaborative, multidisciplinary environment in which to network and strengthen practice. We are continuing to add opportunities for hands-on procedural exposure, including biopsy, vascular access and opportunities to explore commonly used devices in IR. We will also be adding new topics to our didactic sessions including Interesting Cases and M&M review. We hope these will give APPs an opportunity to shine and increase exposure to unique educational experiences.
Continuing education
The Continuing Education Committee is charged with identifying and developing educational resources for members. This group continues to work hard to identify pathways for education. Recent surveys gave great insight about the content APPs want most and the best format for their busy schedules, along with raising awareness about existing SIR educational content for NPs and PAs. Keep an eye out for upcoming presentations through SIR Connect—they just may cover topics you are interested in.
Clinical practice
The Clinical Practice Committee is responsible for addressing issues related to clinical practice, working to develop tools and resources to increase expertise in patient and procedural care. Projects include addressing performance and quality improvement issues, researching, and developing best-practice measures and collaborating with the SIR Standards Division to develop scope-of-practice guidelines. The committee has worked diligently to create onboarding/clinical care materials for new APPs. It serves to create a framework for protocols and guidelines in procedural and clinical care. Upcoming topics for consideration include radiation safety, moderate sedation, fluoroscopy and burnout.
Conclusion
The NP/PA Section is a great way to invest in yourself and your team by expanding your network and increasing your knowledge base in IR. Please stay tuned for upcoming changes to the NP/PA Section website and increased social media presence about networking, education opportunities and potential changes to policy. We are part of an exciting community of APPs who have so much to contribute and share and understand that patient care is at the heart of what we do. We encourage APPs to speak up and advocate, get involved, and help us grow our wonderful community of IR APP providers. We are actively seeking new members and are open to any suggestions/recommendations for what you need.
For more information, visit bit.ly/NPPA-SIR.
