Advancing the clinical nurse leader model through academic-practice-policy partnership.

The nursing profession is tasked with identifying and evaluating models of care with potential to add value to health care delivery. In consideration of this goal, we describe the Clinical Nurse Leader (CNL) initiative and the activities of a national-level CNL research collaborative. The CNL initiative, launched by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing in collaboration with education and healthcare leaders, has delineated CNL education curriculum and practice competencies, and fostered the creation of academic-practice-policy partnerships to pilot CNL integration into frontline nursing care delivery.