Fostering Nursing Faculty Practices Within a University-Based Student Health Care Center

Abstract

Graduate-level clinical nursing faculty who maintain clinical practice can ensure clinical relevancy in the classroom and serve as clinical preceptors for doctor of nursing practice students. Finding flexible and supportive clinical practice sites can be challenging for nursing faculty. Using a continuous quality improvement approach, an academic-practice partnership was formed between a college of nursing and a university-based student health care center to serve both organizations. Integrating 1 clinical faculty member increased patient visits and provider availability during semesters with high patient demand while offering a flexible clinical environment, increasing preceptor availability, and fostering faculty practices across the college.