Best Practices in Building Academic – Service Partnerships in Nursing: Views from the Lens of Nursing Administrators, Students, Faculty and Staff Nurses

This descriptive qualitative research design aimed to explore the views of nursing administrators, students, faculty, and staff nurses in building academic and service partnerships in nursing.

Ten participants were interviewed including chief nurses, deans, faculty and graduating students. Interviews were conducted in-person, audio-taped, transcribed, and analyzed for recurring themes. Data were validated using member checks, peer reviews, and NVivo software.

The emerging themes include (a) Partnering, (b) Involving; (c) Valuing; (d) Harmonizing, (e) Collaborating, (f) and Sustaining. The best practices are those that have been established through times grounded from the collaborative partnership developed because of trust, commitment, respect, decision making, and among other drivers of change and reforms.

Despite difficulties that both academic and service institutions may face in the long run, the future still lies on the hands of collaborative efforts among the nursing administrators, faculty, clinical staff, and not to forget the students.