Partnership for health care. An academic nursing center in a rural community college

Academic nursing centers, owned and administered by schools of nursing, provide ambulatory care in settings in which nurses are both health care providers and clinic managers. Such centers are growing in number within the United States (1,2). In contrast to academic health centers that are based on a medical model, they "give the client direct access to professional nursing services ... using nursing models of health" (3). Academic nursing centers provide accessible and affordable health care services to a variety of clients, including women and children, the elderly, the homeless, minorities, and low-income and underserved persons. They are based in diverse settings--schools of nursing, senior or neighborhood centers, public housing projects, storefronts, churches, schools, and mobile vans--and in some instances, they serve as home care providers (4). They have in common their ownership by schools of nursing.