Leadership for Academic-Service Partnerships: A Mandate for the Profession

The current focus on the need to improve academic-service partnerships in nursing is diagnostic of the fact that successful relationships are the exception rather than the rule.1 Calls from national nursing associations, including the National League for Nursing,2 the American Nurses Association,3 and the American Organization of Nurse Executives,4 to transform nursing education all conclude that success depends on effective partnerships between nursing education and practice. The whole basis for development of the role of the clinical nurse leader (CNL) was predicated on the need for growing a partnership model between schools of nursing and clinical facilities.5