The Policy and Politics of Emerging Academic–Service Partnerships

The type of traditional relationships and behaviors of academe and service no longer match the needs of an emerging and reforming health care system. Rather, the relationships required for the evolving health care system involve a cooperative and collaborative partnership. Models of the “Traditional Professional Nurse Career Trajectory” and the “Shared, Career-long Professional Nurse Formation” are contrasted. The dedicated education unit clinical teaching model created by the University of Portland and Providence Health and Services is offered as an exemplar of a new partnership between academe and service. The political dynamics and resulting policy changes are presented to illuminate the kinds of new thinking and changes required for a partnership model.