Nurse practitioner descriptions for primary care centers: opportunities for ownership

The drastic shift in health care delivery and the accompanying emphasis on health care outcomes has contributed to a rapid proliferation of nurse practitioner services. Prepared as advanced practice nurses with specific assessment skills, primary care nurse practitioners have the opportunity to be participant players rather than observers in business negotiations. To gain a market share of the expanding field, these nurses must assert their position on establishing primary care centers. This qualitative study focused on nurse practitioner descriptions of their needs in a university primary care group practice. Four major response patterns, Vision, Structure, Incentives, and Significance, were clarified by multiple themes defined by explanatory elements for a research-based topology to guide nurse practitioners and schools into positions of ownership of primary care centers in interdisciplinary partnerships.