Mayo Clinic School of Health Sciences offers a one-year postgraduate Nurse Practitioner or Physician Assistant Abdominal Organ Transplant Fellowship at Mayo Clinic's campus in Phoenix/Scottsdale, Arizona. The fellowship is intended to prepare you for a career in one of several disciplines within the growing field of transplantation.

Program highlights

The comprehensive educational curriculum is designed to provide you with specialty training in the medical and surgical aspects of liver, kidney and pancreas transplantation. Mastery of the principles of immunosuppression — a core element of all transplant disciplines — is a major goal and expectation of the program.

You work directly with the renowned faculty of distinguished physicians and surgeons, as well as with other highly recognized, specialized and dedicated physician assistants (PAs) and nurse practitioners (NPs).

In addition to the clinical curriculum, you participate in regularly scheduled academic conferences, attend educational lectures and have the opportunity to perform scholarly research with the potential for publication in academic journals.

Graduation and certification

Upon graduation, you receive a certificate from Mayo Clinic School of Health Sciences documenting successful completion of the program, which indicates demonstration of all expected competencies. Fellows completing the program are expected to be highly competitive candidates for employment at institutions performing organ transplantation in one of several potential disciplines.

The purpose of the postgraduate Nurse Practitioner or Physician Assistant Abdominal Organ Transplant Fellowship is to provide highly specialized training for individuals seeking a career in the growing field of transplantation. Recognizing that NP and PA providers play a key role in the health care delivery system and witnessing the dramatic growth in the demand for organ transplantation due to a host of acute and chronic diseases, we seek to grow the supply of care providers who possess the highly specialized education and training necessary for the competent delivery of transplantation-related services.

Accreditation

See accreditation information for Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science.

Program goals

The Nurse Practitioner or Physician Assistant Abdominal Organ Transplant Fellowship aims to help you:

• Develop a broad knowledge base of the acute and chronic disease states for which patients are considered for liver, kidney or pancreas transplantation
• Utilize evidence-based medicine practices to develop differential diagnoses and treatment plans
• Gain proficiency in the evaluation of potential candidates for abdominal organ transplantation
• Develop detailed understanding of the criteria by which candidacy for abdominal organ transplantation is determined
• Master the principles of immunosuppression applied to the full spectrum of disease states and clinical situations that require individualized therapy
• Understand the key components of donor selection and organ allocation policy
• Become skilled in the evaluation and selection of living liver and kidney donors
• Develop knowledge of the surgical aspects of abdominal organ transplantation, including transplant surgery observation and participation, as well as participation in a transplant surgery clinic
• Become proficient in the care of critically ill transplant recipients, including during the perioperative period
• Develop the skills needed for effective counseling of patients with complex medical problems and their families
• Demonstrate familiarity with the current medical literature in abdominal organ transplantation, including the current controversies in transplantation and the public health and economic ramifications of organ replacement
• Understand the ethical considerations in the conduct of organ transplantation

Mission

The mission of the postgraduate Nurse Practitioner or Physician Assistant Abdominal Organ Transplant Fellowship is to train highly qualified nurse practitioners and physician assistants to become competent, compassionate, and evidence-based providers in the transplant medical and surgical environment. The curriculum contains diverse didactic instruction and direct patient care clinical experience, embedded in the foundation of Mayo Clinic: excellence in patient care, education and research.

This program is designed to engage advanced practice fellows in a valuable experience that will ultimately provide graduates with the skill sets and knowledge to transition into a career in transplant medicine, and provide the utmost quality of care to pre- and post-transplant patients.