Beyond tradition: synergizing intellectual and material capital to forge the new academic-service partnership

Academic-service partnerships are being touted as a solution to workforce problems. "Traditional" approaches to these partnerships have been directed primarily at academic and hospital institutions for mutual benefit. An expanded model of partnership possibilities is presented through three detailed exemplars that include population health (with descriptors from an Institute of Medicine study addressing the public's health in the 21st century), public-private ventures (public institution with faith-based and community agencies), and nursing-corporate opportunities (academia and a proprietary information technology corporate supplier). The benefits of these expanded partnerships and the criteria for selecting a partnership sensitive to the scholarship of practice and the mission/purpose/goals of each partnering organization is highlighted.