Medical group leaders often tell us they struggle to retain top performing advanced practice providers. To overcome this retention challenge, many organizations are developing clearly defined career paths to promote long-term advanced practice provider (APP) loyalty and engagement. One example of an effective APP career ladder that can be adapted to ambulatory APP programs comes from our inpatient colleagues at Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Editor's note: This blog was updated on August 14, 2019. The opinions expressed in this article are solely our own and do not reflect the views and opinions of Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Few hospitals and health systems have historically formalized a career ladder for advanced practice providers (APPs) in the way that they have for other types of clinicians. However, as APPs take on increasing responsibilities as part of the inpatient care team, clinical executives are starting to ask how they can better support career development for their APPs.