An academic-service partnership: ideas that work

The current environment of a growing shortage of nurses, larger baccalaureate nursing student enrollments, and resource scarcity requires creative solutions if we are to meet the current and future needs for nurses. When a regional medical center and a state university college of nursing pool their creativity, talent, and resources, everyone wins. The partnership created by the two organizations has resulted in nine shared initiatives: (1) feedback through the performance-based development system, (2) a computerized medical record system, (3) summer internships; (4) the Leadership Initiative for Nursing Education (LINE) Institute, (5) the Helene Fuld Leadership grant, (6) the registered nurse refresher course, (7) the cooperative education program, (8) supplying clinical faculty, and (9) the nursing summer academy. Lessons learned by those in both organizations point to the importance of trust, risk-taking, and the joint responsibility of education and service for preparing the next generation of nurses for clinical practice.