Nursing schools and academic health centers: toward improved alignment and a synergistic partnership

Abstract

This paper presents the findings from a national survey which the University of Washington conducted among leaders of 32 US academic nursing institutions that are part of academic health centers (AHCs) and complements these findings with results from a separate report by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. While expressing overall satisfaction with their AHC relationships, these leaders find that nursing is often given greater parity in matters of education and research than in mission setting, financial, and governance matters. AHCs are being asked to meet new health care challenges in new ways, starting with the education of health care professionals. AHCs need to be restructured to give nursing full parity if the nation’s and world’s needs for preventive and clinical care are to be best met.

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

“…This encompassed the notion of developing junior researchers into fully fledged committed clinical academics, who are supported to develop both clinical and academic expertise in their field. While the concept of developing others careers is not novel, texts refer to this with reference to specific examples (Carter et al, 2020; Emami et al, 2017; Wallis & Chaboyer, 2012), or in more abstract terms of needing to promote career development (Baltruks & Callaghan, 2018). Our data shows how senior clinical academics can create the environment that facilitates growth and mediate capacity building and, in turn, career development.…”

“…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.…”