Growing a Robust Academic Practice Partnership in an Academic Health System

Abstract

Schools of nursing located within academic health centers have embraced expanded opportunities to lead in this era of rapid change and considerable uncertainty in US health care. These schools bear a unique responsibility to work with their clinical nursing partners to advance the care of patients, improve the health of communities and populations, and help steward the nation's health care resources. This article describes how the Emory University Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing has formed and sustained academic-practice partnerships in response to these imperatives. The structures and processes that have supported the partnerships are shared, as are the keys to success in a true partnership. The authors describe the work required to achieve mutually agreed-upon goals, along with the challenges that faculty and health care leaders have faced in their journey to system partnerships.

Academic Nursing and Faculty Practice

“…literature. [9][10][11] However, whether faculty who engage in faculty practice have more or fewer scholarship/research outcomes is unclear. Insufficient time was noted to be a challenge of faculty practice and scholarship/research.…”

“…3,4 Faculty practice has a positive impact on nursing education. [5][6][7] There are also noneducation benefits including positive patient outcomes, 8 collaborative opportunities for scholarship, [9][10][11] and recruitment, retention, and mentoring of faculty. 11 There are many challenges inherent to academic nursing, and there are additional unique challenges for faculty who engage in faculty practice and for nursing programs that have faculty practice.…”

“…Faculty practice has a positive impact on nursing education 5–7. There are also noneducation benefits including positive patient outcomes,8 collaborative opportunities for scholarship,9–11 and recruitment, retention, and mentoring of faculty 11…”

Florence Nightingale's legacy for clinical academics: A framework analysis of a clinical professorial network and a model for clinical academia

“…There have been significant challenges in developing a clinical academic nursing workforce globally (Carter et al, 2020; Emami et al, 2017; Kelly et al, 2018), with most research in this area describing partnership models, in which academics or educators work on projects in clinical practice, or with clinical practitioners working on a finite project rather than a clinical academic pathway. An example was the Global Health Service Partnership in Africa (Stuart‐Shor et al, 2017), where educators work with nurses in clinical practice across the United States and Kenya to share knowledge.…”

When reach exceeds touch: Student experiences in a cross‐sector community‐based academic‐practice partnership

“…Current nursing literature demonstrates an increase in notable articles highlighting strengths and challenges of innovative partnerships and academic‐practice partnerships, explicitly. Literature reviews yield articles that discuss model development, project implementation and outcomes, best practices, partner relationships, workforce issues, clinical learning opportunities, anecdotal student value, and advancing research or clinical services (Cygan, McNaughton, Reising, & Reid, ; Glynn, Wendt, McVey, & Vessey, ; Kelly, Abraham, Toney, Muirhead, & Shapiro, ; Larkin, ; Mayer, Braband, & Killen, ; McClure, Lutenbacher, O'Kelley, & Dietrich, ; Schaffer, Schoon, & Brueshoff, ; Wros, Mathew, Voss, & Bookman, ). While authors speak to diverse and innovative collaborative efforts, partnership experiences between distinct programs of nursing to improve population health outcomes are limited (Glynn et al, ; Schaffer et al, ).…”