Addressing Health Care Transition Competencies in Nurse Practitioner Education

Coordinating health care transition across care settings is a national core competency for nurse practitioner education. Caring for children and youth with special health care needs requires a collaborative approach to transition from a child-centered to an adult-focused care model. Adding this content is challenging, given the gaps in the health care transition literature and inconsistent faculty expertise. This report describes one university’s innovative quality improvement project aimed at developing competency in health care transition for children and youth with special health care needs among nurse practitioner students. The design, implementation, and evaluation of teaching strategies that resulted in significant knowledge gain for students are reported. •A formal health care transition plan improves the consistency of care for children and youth with special health care needs (CYSHCN).•Transitions of care are a core competency in nurse practitioner education.•An education gap regarding health care transition for CYSHCN was identified.•An asynchronous learning module is an effective method to meet this competency.•Nurse practitioners are pivotal in the transition of CYSHCN into an adult-oriented care model.