SPECIAL SESSION: Creating Academic Service Partnerships for Education, Practice and Research

Description/Overview: This presentation describes a four-prong partnership model to enhance nurse involvement and quality of care. The partnership consists or two academic institutions (one in the USA and one in Hong Kong) and two acute care services, one a Magnet-designated hospital in the USA and one the major provider of services for the population of Hong Kong. Several components of the partnership will be described, including student exchanges, particularly among doctoral students, faculty collaborative research projects, expert clinician exchange programs, site visits from one acute care facility to another, study tours among key personnel. Particular emphasis will be on the experiences of visiting scholars ab the partner institutions, including the following topics: enhancing the organizational culture, approaches to quality improvement; patient safety and quality of care and value of patient and staff education. Another exemplar that will be addressed is the 4-week study tour for Hong Kong nurse leaders who visited the US hospital. Components of the study tour included leadership and management roles, change strategies, creating excellence within an organization, positive practice environments for nursing personnel, and patient quality and safety outcomes. A research example that will be described is focused on health professional students’ understandings of end-of-life issues. Other collaborative projects include initiatives comparing health care educational, administrative, and leadership structures and styles including examination of quality and access of health care, in the partnership countries. Plans for collaborative research include identifying existing projects at the partner institutions that connect faculty, students, and practicing nurses. Metrics to measure success will include the number of participants who take advantage of the collaborative opportunity and the number of joint presentations and publications in scholarly journals with coauthors from partner countries. Key aspects of the successful ongoing partnership will be described, and lessons learned will be identified so as to provide a foundation for future initiatives.