Center for Advanced Practice

The Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford Center for Advanced Practice is composed of nationally board-certified advanced practice providers, including nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and certified nurse midwives, dedicated to caring for medically complex pediatric patients and expectant families.

Advanced practice providers (APP):

  • Function in all clinical settings—inpatient, ambulatory, critical care, and surgical services lines. They provide direct management of acute and chronic medical conditions through diagnosis and treatment and strive to coordinate care with other pediatric subspecialties to optimize patient care outcomes and satisfaction.
  • Advocate for children and their families by seeking out resources and providing family-centered and culturally respectful care.
  • Engage in professional development activities as mentors, consultants, and educators, and actively participate as leaders in local, regional, and national organizations.
  • Evaluate and implement evidence-based practice to optimize outcomes and improve quality of care.
  • Champion and foster collaboration among the health care team members to ensure patient safety and high-quality provision of health care services.

For inquiries about the Center for Advanced Practice, email us at: advancedpractice@stanfordchildrens.org

Learn more about our career opportunities >

Our Center for Advanced Practice has a leadership and management team that supports more than 270 APPs in the organization. As a team, we:

  • Collaborate with division chiefs to manage assigned APPs.
  • Review standard work and assess the current state of APP utilization.
  • In conjunction with the clinical team, review applications, interview and hire APPs, facilitate onboarding, and evaluate performance.
  • Along with practice managers, participate/lead efforts to understand, measure, and manage workload of APPs.
  • Work with clinical teams to develop metrics to measure APP productivity, value, and outcomes of patient care.
  • Ensure that APPs meet various state, local, and federal regulatory requirements.
  • Collaborate with hospital leadership to create, support, and lead initiatives to improve the professional climate and work environment for APPs.
  • Participate in clinical practice.
  • Share best practices.
  • Represent advanced practice on various hospital committees.
  • Provide governance on strategic initiatives of the center.

In 2020, four APP-Specific Nightingale Awards were created, which highlight and celebrate the outstanding accomplishments of APPs at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford:

  • The Innovation & Improvement (APP) award recognizes an APP involved in advancing industry-leading practices to further health care. This commitment should be demonstrated through the implementation of improvement ideas and dissemination of medical knowledge at the local, regional, and/or national levels.
  • The Preceptor of the Year (APP) award recognizes an APP who goes above and beyond in teaching the next generation of APPs. The award recipient must demonstrate a consistent commitment to mentoring APP students on a one-to-one basis and promoting critical thinking and clinical decision-making.
  • The Rising Star (APP) award recognizes an APP who has been in advanced practice for less than three years and has made a large impact in a short time through exemplary practice, leadership, service, and education. This award highlights significant contribution from a new APP who has made a sustained and positive impact on the organization and the APP profession through projects, research, activities, and initiatives that benefit children and mothers.
  • The Exemplary Clinical Practice (APP) award recognizes an APP who demonstrates a commitment to outstanding clinical practice that goes well beyond the traditional service role of APPs. The recipient must have continuing commitment to clinical care as reflected in a variety of programs and initiatives, which are responsive to clinical and psychosocial needs of the pediatric and OB population.

Every month, we collaborate with our Stanford Healthcare APP colleagues to provide a monthly advanced practice provider (APP) onboarding day. This day is designed to introduce newly hired APPs to learn more about organizational policies and procedures, the credentialing and privileging process, information services, clinical documentation and compliance and billing training. APPs also have the opportunity to meet other new APPs as they onboard into their respective subspecialties.

Advanced practice providers (APPs) provide volunteer precepting at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health. We have a robust process for student placement review and matching. All student placement requests must come through the APP Student Placement Committee. Prior to submitting placement requests, please ensure that your institution has an active clinical education agreement with Stanford Medicine Children’s Health.

Our application links and placement cycles are attached including matching, student onboarding, and application timelines. We do not accept placement requests outside of these cycles.

For questions about APP precepting, email us at: appstudentplacement@stanfordchildrens.org

The Advanced Practice Provider (APP) Career Ladder is a voluntary clinical leadership and career advancement program designed to recognize and reward professional excellence. The purpose of the Career Ladder is to acknowledge the clinician’s accomplishments in three broad areas: clinical expertise; institutional citizenship and leadership; and professional contributions to patients, to Stanford Children’s Health, and to the profession. The ladder has three levels (APP I, APP II, APP III), which acknowledge clinical years of experience and expertise, leadership within the organization, and contributions to the professional community.

The APP Fellowship Program provides a 12-month post graduate fellowship to support the transition of APPs to function in complex pediatric subspecialty practice. This will be accomplished through a structured and evaluated program which offers both clinical, didactic, and professional experiences designated in specifical clinical tracks. We want to support APPs in their transition to practice functioning as effective members of the healthcare team and provide comprehensive care to the patients we serve at Stanford Children’s Health across the continuum (acute care, critical care, ambulatory care).

The 2024-2025 Application Period is now open.

Please visit our APP Fellowship website for more information and the link to apply.

For questions about the APP Fellowship program, email us at: appfellowship@stanfordchildrens.org

PPs with less than three years of experience are encouraged to attend a monthly mentorship meeting where we provide discussion on topics such as impostor syndrome. In these meetings, new hires have the opportunity to talk with one another, share experiences, and also hear tips from seasoned APPs at the organization.

In addition, APPs can sign up for an E-Clinical Mentorship program that provides support, guidance, and growth in their respective professional development journey. APPs who wish to mentor or be mentored can sign up and be matched with a fellow APP. Potential mentors and mentees create an online profile and have the option to choose from multiple topics to mentor another APP or be mentored by another APP.

Advanced Practice Provider Grand Rounds is a monthly podium/virtual speaker session targeted toward all advanced practice providers Stanford Children's Health and Stanford Health Care. It provides APPs an opportunity to share professional knowledge by providing an overview and key components of their practice specialty, with hopes of generating discussion about their roles as an APP. The session may include evidence-based practice with updates on management, practice challenges, and relevant treatments/novel therapies, as well as professional development and advancement. The attendees will be able to apply the knowledge learned to improve patient outcomes and advance their practice. Continuing education credit is offered.

The Advanced Practice Provider (APP) General Council is a coordinating body that meets every other month and is chaired by two APPs. The purpose is to promote the collaboration, leadership, and professional growth of advanced practice providers (nurse practitioners, physician assistants, certified nurse-midwives) by offering a forum to facilitate engagement in opportunities related to clinical growth, educational enrichment, quality improvement, and professional role advancement. It creates a forum to support APP performance development in areas including transition to organization, continued education, professional development, research, marketing and networking, and community outreach. It enhances communication and builds collaborative relationships between APPs, other health care providers, and community members.

  1. Student Placement
  2. Career Ladder
  3. Wellness
  4. Newsletter
  5. APP Grand Rounds
  6. Information Technology
  7. Appreciation Week
  8. Awards

The APP Newsletter is sent out quarterly to all APPs and serves as a mode of communication to welcome new hires, recognize APP achievements, highlight an APP and his or her clinical practice, and provide information on upcoming conferences, meetings, and national updates related to pediatrics and the advanced practice profession.