Evolving as a University-Wide School of Nursing

To facilitate standardization of curricula and to expand program offerings around the state, Indiana University School of Nursing has been charged by university officials with becoming a multicampus school of nursing. In that evolution, the focus was on identifying the core commonalities that hold across campuses in areas of fundamental interest to the accreditation process: material resources; quality of faculty; criteria for student admission, progression, and graduation; shared policies; standardization of curricula; and evaluation of outcomes. After three decades of experimentation, with the advent of responsibility-centered management, the trend shifted from a centralized to a more decentralized approach, yet the resulting model for a university-wide school of nursing retains clear advantages, for example, a substantial presence in the aggregate that makes nursing visible within the state. This history of multisite collaboration has relevance for other schools of nursing as pressure to form institutional partnerships grows in importance prompted by mounting financial constraints and faculty shortages.