You are a Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) employed as a contract employee in a busy primary care practice for two years. The providers in the group include one physician, who is also the owner of the practice, and two other nurse practitioners. The owner of the practice recently made comments about the need to produce more revenue. You relate to his concerns and feel that you have several strategies that could be helpful. Your contract is up for renewal in 3 months. You are highly satisfied with your job and want to stay in the group. You see 20 patients per day on average and take call every third weekend.
Discussion Question:
What negotiation strategies should you use to propose a contract renewal?
All the terms of a nurse practitioner employment relationship ought to be well defined. Verbal agreement or a handshake does not suffice. Thus, it is necessary to have the employment relationship as an official and duly signed a contract that legally protects the employee when a dispute arises. It is important to have proper negotiation strategies to help in proposing a contract renewal similar to what is presented in the case study guide. Contracting and negotiation skills should be a major factor for the advanced practice nurses. The advanced practice nurses ought to understand the important terms of employment applied to build a strong foundation for a successful employment (Buppert, 2011).
An important strategy is to establish whether the position she intends to serve is salaried per hour, per day, or the patient contract. It is important to establish the worth of the services offered by practice charges per patient visit and the workload. The figures of the overhead costs, malpractice costs, and the cost of service should be considered to estimate the net worth to the practice.
The advanced nurse practitioner ought to determine the professional standards that apply to the delivery of services as well as the benefits associated with the profession. The benefits of a salaried employee should be negotiated on top of the salary. They include health insurance, vacation, sick leave, travel allowance, continued education allowance, malpractice insurance, and membership in professional organizations (AANP, 2016).
Next is to determine the documentation platform to be utilized for the contract agreement. It can be electronic or paper based. For the owner of the practice, it is important to consider the billing policies, procedures, and the payment required to be identified as well as the vendors. The billing policy and procedure plan, as well as charges and the accounts received, ought to be moved to the selected billing structure (Buppert, 2011).
Compensation and benefits in employment are an important part of the negotiation skills that should be extended to both the employer and the employee. The compensation processes follow certain systems, but the benefits are diverse. The employee ought to seek for clarification of the reimbursement for the expenses incurred while on duty like licensure, certification, and other work-related travel. There are also certain bonus incentives that should be clarified as well as the on-call payments (AANP, 2016).
Another crucial aspect to consider in negotiating for a contract renewal is the terms of employment and termination. The term of employment should be clearly stated and the conditions to bind with it. Also necessary is the parameters of termination of employment and the impact of the termination (Fisher, Ury & Patton, 2011).
There are several practice expectations that should be specified before binding to a contract. The Advanced nurse practitioner should determine if they will be able to practice in full according to the scope of practice. The barriers to practice and the expectation that one will not practice beyond their scope of practice should be specified.
References
American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP) (2016) Employment Negotiations for Practice/ Professional
Buppert, C. (2011). Nurse practitioner’s business practice & legal guide (4th ed.). Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.
Fisher, R., Ury, W. L., & Patton, B. (2011) getting to yes: Negotiating agreement without giving in, Penguin
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