Sustained impact of an academic-practice partnership

Abstract

Academic-practice partnerships foster innovation and transition to nursing practice in healthcare systems. The purpose of this paper is to describe the impact of a public-private academic-practice partnership for Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) education designed to transform a large healthcare system's nursing workforce and model of care. The conceptual framework is organized around Rogers's (2003) principles of diffusion of innovation in organizations. A logic model illuminates how inputs, activities, outputs and outcomes resulted in sustained impact for graduates, the college and the healthcare organization. Partnership outcomes include education of baccalaureate and master's-prepared employed nurses (n = 95) in a DNP program for advanced practice nursing (APN) roles in the healthcare system; dissemination of scholarship; and revision of the healthcare system's research approval process. Sustained impact includes advancement of DNP-prepared graduates to complex leadership and practice roles; development of new programs and advanced practice roles based on scholarly project findings; expansion of population-specific patient programs; and extension of continuum- and access-to-care models in the healthcare organization. Recommendations include continuing development of academic-practice partnerships for transition to practice and advancement of roles and levels of champions to achieve sustained impact of academic-practice partnerships in healthcare organizations.