Nurse practitioners work in challenging environments which can lead to increased turnover, but outcomes can be improved with support and mentorship. The NP Companion platform will match newly qualified NPs (Nurse Practitioners) with more experienced NPs to provide support and mentoring and offer content relevant to what new NPs can expect after graduating with their NP degree and in their first 1-2 years of practice.
Abstract:
Not all NPs have access to mentorship due to their work location and environment, and there is currently a lack of convenient, easy to access tools that offer peer and mentorship support. Students will provide a Beta version of a mentoring and resource tool that could support a large initial test study of NPs and attract potential partners.
The NP Companion will be a web based, mobile first app and will support NPs as they transition into their new role making mentorship easy and accessible. The project plans to utilize common UX design and prototyping tools such as Figma for prototyping of the frontend, will develop a NP matching algorithm and engine that can work with partially complete and evolving sets of privacy-sensitive data, will evaluate and determine suitable responsive design frameworks and cross-platform development tools such as React Native to help define a tech stack that makes it easy to distribute the NP Companion app and is easy to maintain by ITS staff, and use common version control tools such as GitLab for project management.
The app will provide career information, chat functionality and matching with an established mentor. The system will incorporate a multiparameter matching engine to achieve a “best fit” match between mentor and mentee.
- Matching functionality to connect new NPs (Nurse Practitioners) with more experienced NPs allowing mentors and mentees to create a network of support. They may consider variables such as years of experience, age, geographic location, specialty, professional setting, when they would be available to meet, how they would like to interact, etc.
- Progress timeline of where they are in their first/second year as a NP with built-in messages of encouragement at certain milestones. (Content provided by the sponsors)
- Chat function(s) for interaction with mentors and potentially a separate chat for interaction with other new NPs (other means of communication such as third-party video chat or phone calls/messages can be agreed upon but will be outside the scope of the NP Companion implementation)
- Tracking functionality
- Creation of interest groups to support targeted conversations
- Progressive flow of “what to expect” content in this new role at key milestones in their new NP journey with the potential for adding a Q&A Interface. (Content provided by the sponsors)
The app will also require back-end management control functions to maintain a database and manage the operation of the community.
- An important part of the project will be to review and classify the types of data to be collected from NPs by the app to determine appropriate informed consent process and data collection procedures
- The team will work with ITS staff to ensure that all data that is being collected, processed, and stored is compliant with any regulations that may apply (e.g., working with HIPAA compliant servers).
During development and/or upon completion, the prototype of this app will be able to be piloted with a cohort of new Nurse Practitioners to understand their user experience and their feedback on the relevance and usefulness of the content and other features. Scope of this pilot study still to be determined.
Impact:
While nursing is a noble and rewarding career, it is not without its challenges. For NP’s, the average turnover rate in the U.S. is 10%. NPs often leave due to stressful working conditions such as a lack of leadership and supervision, understaffed facilities, underutilization of their role, burnout, etc. Job changes disrupt careers of individuals and cost the employers significant amounts in staffing disruption and recruiting costs. The support of a mentor and community can improve the transition to practice, professional development, confidence building, networking building, networking, job satisfaction, and ultimately retention of NP’s in these new roles early in their careers.
Scope:
Minimum Viable Product Deliverable (Minimum level of success)
- Review relevant background information including: current best practices in human-centered design and mobile platform development, matching algorithms, user experience and interaction design, user needs and demographics of NP students transitioning to professional practice, etc.
- Conduct additional/complementary customer discovery interviews and develop personas for the users. (Initial requirements, guidelines, and anonymized data to be provided by the sponsor)
- Develop a list of requirements for the project covering technical functions and user needs.
- Design and develop a matching algorithm and engine that can provide closest matches across many parameters such as years of experience, age, geographic location, specialty, professional setting, when they would be available to meet, how they would like to interact, and can work with incomplete and evolving sets of privacy-sensitive data.
- Complete an implementation of a Beta version of the NP Companion app and systematically test and demonstrate that it meets the requirements.
Expected Final Deliverable (Expected level of success)
- Test the Beta version with sponsors and relevant users. Analyze user feedback and determine a priority list of modifications.
- Implement the highest priority modifications.
- Provide a strategic review of the platform that includes recommendations for the future.
Stretch Goal Opportunities: (High level of success)
- Complete and test 2 full versions of platform (e.g., using alternative mobile platforms for implementation, or alternative designs of the matching engine for comparison)
- Run multiple focus groups with representative groups of users to refine the prototype and increase potential for user adoption.
- Launch a test based on a public release of the revised Beta version of the app.
Front End/Back End Development (4-5 students)
Specific Skills: Full stack development.
SI students must have completed SI 582 and/or be enrolled in data science track courses to support both frontend and matching algorithm development.
Students must have completed EECS 281 or the equivalent. EECS 485 or equivalent would be very helpful.
Likely Majors: CS, SI
User Experience (1-2 Students)
Specific Skills: Experience in UI/UX design, including developing needs statements, personas, storyboards, high-fidelity prototyping (e.g., Figma),
Likely Majors: SI, CS
Business Product Development (1-2 Students)
Specific Skills: A focus on product/process design that will result in a sustainable tool/organization.
Students must have both business perspective and coding skills equivalent to EECS 280.
A minor in entrepreneurship would be a plus.
Likely Majors: CS, BBA, PUBLHLTH
Additional Desired Skills/Knowledge/Experience
If you have any of these characteristics, highlight them on your Experience and Interest Form and talk about them in your (optional) one way video interview.
- Interest in contributing to the work of nurses in the healthcare field
- Exposure to systems like dating apps that use matching algorithms
- A passion for using or wanting to develop mobile-friendly web-based or native mobile apps
- Practical experience in full stack development on any platform
- Practical experience with any elements of the tech stack
- Demonstrated success in team- based technical development
- Demonstrated Leadership in any organization
Taylor Bringard, BSN, RNSponsor Mentor
Michelle Pardee, DNP, FNP-BC
The focus of Dr. Pardee’s clinical scholarship is adolescent medicine, with her primary interests centering around healthcare for runaway and homeless adolescents, trauma-informed care and human trafficking. Dr. Pardee provides healthcare to adolescents and young adults at a school-linked health center. Dr. Pardee’s expertise in interprofessional education and practice, has her working on implementing interprofessional activities and clinical experiences for all nursing students. Dr. Pardee teaches within the DNP program and provides mentoring and guidance for students as they progress through their DNP scholarly project. She also teaches interprofessional courses which gives her an opportunity to learn from faculty across campus and mentor students from many programs.
Executive Mentor
Dr. Charles Yingling DNP, FNP-BC, FAANP
Dr. Charles Yingling is Dean and Professor at the Orvis School of Nursing at University of Nevada, Reno. His scholarly work focuses on nurse-led models of care to improve health and healthcare for historically marginalized people and communities. He has led the creation of two post-graduate nurse practitioner (NP) fellowship programs to improve the transition to practice experience for new graduate NPs.
Faculty Mentor
Michael Nebeling
Michael Nebeling is an Associate Professor in the School of Information, where he leads the Information Interaction Lab. His lab investigates new methods, tools and technologies that enable users to interact with information in more natural and powerful ways, and also make it easier for designers to create more usable and effective user interfaces. Over the last few years, his lab’s research focus has been on augmented, mixed reality, and virtual reality.
Additional Stakeholders/Support:
Student Innovators:
Taylor Bringard, BSN, RN and Lila Khan, DNP, AGPCNP-BC (UMSN Alumni). Taylor will support the student team as a stakeholder to provide background and guidance. She is locally based and works at the University of Michigan Health System.
Additional Support:
Ann Fitzsimons, BS, MBA Nursing Innovation Portfolio Manager and Engagement Specialist, Healthcare Innovation Impact Program (HiiP) University of Michigan School of Nursing.
Weekly Meetings: During the winter 2025 semester, the team will meet on Mondays from 9:30 – 11:30 AM. Location TBD.
Work Location: The work will take place on campus in Ann Arbor.
Course Substitutions: CE MDE, ChE Elective, CS Capstone/MDE, EE MDE, CoE Honors, SI Elective/Cognate
Citizenship Requirements: This project is open to all students. International Students: CPT declaration (curricular practical training) is NOT required for this project because the sponsor is part of the University.
IP/NDA: Students will sign standard University of Michigan IP/NDA document(s).
Summer Project Activities: No summer activity will take place on the project.
Learn more about the expectations for this type of MDP project