What is an Academic-Practice Partnership?

Academic-Practice partnerships represent true collaboration between academia and industry to educate our future nursing workforce. In these partnerships, students are able to work and learn at the same time. This benefits everyone! The student learns on the job, in real life situations, and earns a wage which will help them complete their education. The academic partner has access to current educational opportunities for their students while they make sure students meet rigorous milestones in their learning journey. The clinical partner has student-employees to provide care, thus enabling other employees to teach the student-employees, and ensuring new graduate nurses have real world experience.

During the COVID-19 Pandemic, Academic-Practice Partnerships were endorsed in a Policy Brief by National Council of State Boards of Nursing, National League for Nursing, American Organization for Nursing Leadership, Accreditation Commission for Education in Nursing, Inc., Organization for Associate Degree Nursing, NLN Commission for Nursing Education Accreditation, American Association of Colleges of Nursing, Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education, National Student Nurses' Association, and the American Nurses Association.

Another Video by the American Journal of Nursing is LOCATED HERE.

Guiding Principles for an Academic-Practice Partnership

The American Association of Colleges of Nursing has outlined 8 guiding principles to Academic-Practice Partnerships, along with bullet points to consider under each principle. Please access that document here.

American Journal of Nursing: Practice/Academic Partnerships in the Age of COVID-19

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Academic-Practice Partnership Toolkit

• AACN Toolkit
• AACN APP Summary Document Template
• The website helps you identify:
• Players - who should be involved?
• Partnership Activities - what could you be doing together? What's the benefit?
• Environment - consider time, resources, regulation requirements, and funding needs.
• Exemplars - examples of award-winning academic practice partnerships

Academic-Practice Partnership Outcomes

The AACN has developed a sample of how Academic-Practice Partners could establish goals, action steps, and expected outcomes for the partnership. Please access information here.

A template is available for download here.

Exemplars

• 2019 AACN Academic-Practice Partnership Award Winners
• 2013 - 2018 AACN Academic-Practice Partnership Award Winners

Literature

• Policy brief: U.S. nursing leadership supports practice/academic partnerships to assist the nursing workforce during the COVID-19 (2020). https://www.ncsbn.org/Policy_Brief_US_Nursing_Leadership_COVID19.pdf
• Practice/academic partnership: One answer to prelicensure clinical placements during COVID-19. (July 2020). Leader to Leader (special issue). https://www.ncsbn.org/LTL_Summer2020.pdf.
• Chenot, T.M. & Christopher, R. (2019). A statewide initiative integrating quality and safety education for nurses (QSEN) through academic-clinical partnerships to improve health outcomes. Journal of Professional Nursing. 35, 282-292.
• Sebastian, J.G., Breslin, E.T., Trautman, D., Cary, A., Rosseter, R.J. & Vlahov, D. (2018). Leadership by collaboration: Nursing’s bold vision for academic-practice partnerships. Journal of Professional Nursing. 34, 110-116.
• Kelly, U., Abraham, C., Muirhead, L. & Shapiro, S.E. (2018). Growing a robust academic practice partnership in an academic health system. Nursing Administration Quality. 42(4), 331-342.