Background:
Service-learning community–academic partnerships provide opportunities for nursing student development. Although mutual benefit has been identified as a critical element for the success of these partnerships, research indicates a lack of attention to this element during the collaborative process.
Method:
This single case study aimed to identify benefits of an innovative service-learning community–academic partnership between a college of nursing and an elementary school. Data were collected and analyzed from four sources of evidence: interviews, artifacts, documents, and fieldwork.
Results:
Findings suggest that both the college of nursing and elementary school mutually benefitted from the partnership. Mutual benefits were categorized into three categories: (a) student service leadership development, (b) service-learning curricula enrichment, and (c) enhanced partner service initiatives.
Conclusion:
To increase capacity for sustainability of service-learning partnerships, the following strategies are recommended: initiation of a formal contract between partners, use of a guiding framework to identify outcomes, and faculty support for service initiatives.
[
J Nurs Educ
. 2020;59(2):93–96.]
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