International collaboration: initial steps and strategies

The nurse practitioner (NP) movement, which began in the United States in 1965, has caused sweeping changes both in nursing and in health care delivery. The concept of NPs then spread to the United Kingdom (U.K.) and continues to move globally. The international development of NPs has been streamlined through collaborative efforts of the U.S. and the U.K. There have been striking similarities in the evolution of expanded practice roles in both countries. In 1993, NPs from the U.S. and the U.K. came together to support the first international NP conference and, in the process, developed a framework for global international collaboration. This article summarizes the collective knowledge and the strategies for success developed through this collaborative effort.