AACN –AONE Task Force on Academic Practice Partnerships
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
3:00-4:00 pm
Members Present: Judy Beal, Chair, Simmons College, Judy Husted, Co-Chair, Kaiser
Permanente, Anna Alt-White, Office of Nursing Services, VA, Irene Fleshner, Genesis
Healthcare, Linda Everett, Clarian Health, Judy Erickson, Jacksonville University, Judy
Karshmer, University of San Francisco
Absent: Susan Swider, Rush University
The charge of the task force was reviewed. The task force is charged with initiating a
national dialogue on current and future best practices in academic-practice partnerships.
The task force is specifically charged with developing a roadmap for nursing leaders to
develop and sustain effective academic-practice partnerships. The task force will:
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Document the historical perspectives on academic-practice partnerships in the
profession of nursing.
Synthesize the current evidence based literature on academic-practice partnerships
in nursing.
Identify and categorize current academic-practice initiatives and innovations
across the country.
Identify the impact of such practices on academic and practice institutions and
their constituencies.
Define the characteristics of effective academic-practice partnerships.
Identify facilitators and barriers to the establishment and continuity of effective
academic-practice partnerships.
Identify strategies for nursing leaders in academe and practice to assist them in
the development of effective partnerships.
Recommend opportunities for academic-practice innovations.
Develop Hallmarks of Excellence in Academic- Practice Partnership that include
a set of critical elements essential for the development and sustainability of
effective academic-practice partnerships.
In addition, the he following factors will be considered:
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The task force will be comprised of leaders in academia and practice.
The academic-practice partnerships to be included in this report are specific to the
discipline of nursing and include those that also foster inter-professional
collaboration.
The task force will consider a variety of approaches to collecting data on best
practices.
The task force will develop a process to assure stakeholder consensus from
academic and practice leaders regarding the Hallmarks of Excellence in
Academic-Practice Partnership..
The task force will develop a strategy for dissemination of recommendations.
The task force work will be completed by July 2011.
It was noted that this is a joint task force of AACN and AONE. The goal is to come up
with a document where we can identify strategies for nurse leaders that can be sustained
in academic settings. The group discussed the work product and the future possibility of
a national conference or summit. The task force members were asked to respond to the
charge and provide comment. Data gathering will occur through surveys and focus
groups.
The work will require a significant review of literature. A google group will be
established to post documents. Task Force members were asked to use this site to post
documents of interest around this topic that all members can access.
The task force discussed why partnerships end up not working. Several reasons included:
 A change in a position/people
 The vision or priority shifts
 What info structure needs to exist?
 Based on the relationship of the people
 Sustainability makes it a real partnership rather than an affiliation
The task force spent some time brainstorming ideas:
 Survey questions - what kind of innovative practices do you have, what is the
value of the partnership, what makes them stop working, etc.
 Electronic survey or telephone interviews - to elicit best practices in addition to
what is in the literature
 What is state of the art right now, in SON and in practice settings, what are the
challenges
 What is the state of the situation for clinical education?
 If you had your way, how would you design it?
 What are the Next best practices?
 Constrained with what they are doing, need to make radical changes
 Clinical education – what is needed? The benefits of the healthcare institution,
what does the partnership bring to the workforce? Not all academic.
 What is the giveback, what does the organization gain? And what does the
academic gain from the clinical?
 What are the features of best partners? What contributes to those expectations
and problems. Mutual vision and goals.
 How can you make it a partnership and not just an affiliation?
 What if there was criteria in our policy and procedures in accreditation? Make it
part of an expectation/ joint commission
 Joint commission does not require that though - magnet facility, they do require
demonstration of partnership
 Exploit the best practices as identified as the magnet world
 We are thinking how we are going to transition our nursing staff from acute to
other episodes of care in accountable care
 How do we prepare our students? Access to those students.
The group discussed the beginning timeline for work:
- December, January, February – collect data
- March, April – analyze data