[University and community health center collaboration]

Nurses from a CLSC in Hull, Quebec are defining a positive role for community health nurses in a multidisciplinary environment. They base their professional day-to-day practice on Orem's conceptual nursing framework. Many of these home care nurses studied in a post-RN baccalaureate nursing program at the University of Quebec in Hull, where they learned different aspects of conceptual frameworks and the nursing process. Two nurse clinicians and a nurse administrator submitted a project based on Orem's model to the administrators of their community health centre. Once it was approved, a nursing professor from the university agreed to act as a consultant and principal researcher to implement the process. The authors describe this three-year collaborative project between home care nurses and the researcher. This includes its objectives, the participants' roles, the tools developed, the process, and the repercussions on nursing care, nurses, and the multidisciplinary team.