An innovative academic-practice partnership to enhance the development and training of military nurses

Academic-practice partnerships have been identified by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing as a best practice for advancing the profession of nursing in a collaborative manner by sharing goals, knowledge, and respect in a mutually beneficial line of effort. Training military nurses poses a unique challenge to academia and military nurse corps to produce competent nursing professionals who are also effective military officers. The academic-practice partnership between the United States Army Cadet Command's ROTC program and the University of San Francisco's School of Nursing is a prime example of such a partnership. Through the innovative month-long nurse summer training internship program, Army nursing students work one-on-one with an experienced Army nurse preceptor to receive an intense clinical experience with a minimum of 150 h of hands-on patient care in a military medical treatment facility. This example of cognitive apprenticeship learning provides an adjunct to nursing program curricula in addition to an introduction of the roles and responsibilities of a military officer. This academic-practice partnership helps develop a strong group of novice nurses who are confident leaders and critical thinkers that easily make the transition from academia to professional practice.