Academic-Service Partnerships: Increasing the Advanced Nurse Workforce.

Background: Clinical education placement for advanced practice registered nurse (APRN) students is challenging for most graduate schools of nursing. This study describes the experiences of hospitals that formed academic-service partnerships to facilitate clinical education placement for APRN students.

Method: Hospital staff, schools of nursing administration and clinical faculty staff, clinical preceptors, and APRN students participated in the focus group and interview sessions during the evaluation of the Graduate Nurse Education demonstration project.

Results: Content analysis resulted in seven themes: APRN Student Enrollment, Clinical Placements/Process, Clinical Education Sites, Clinical Preceptors, Communication and Collaboration, Sustainability, and Funding Process.

Conclusion: Future partnerships between hospitals, schools of nursing, and clinical education sites should consider collaborating in multiple regions to increase enrollment and clinical education placement opportunities for APRN students. .