Academic-Practice Partnership Pivot During COVID-19 Pandemic Surge

Nurs Adm Q. 2022 Apr-Jun;46(2):103-112. doi: 10.1097/NAQ.0000000000000520.

Abstract

Health care systems continue to experience the sequential aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, with major care access, quality, safety, financial sustainability, and workforce considerations. Yet, academic-clinical partnership opportunities exist for transformational change, even when efforts to respond to a pandemic seem insurmountable. A nursing partnership between an academic health center nursing school and university health system provided short- and long-term support for the nursing workforce shortage during a COVID-19 surge. An academic-clinical integration framework guided planning, clinical support activities, outcomes achieved, technology innovations, and shared lessons associated with these efforts. The COVID-19 surge response steps included a call to action, preparation for surge support by the academic and clinical partners, and a team approach for clinical service delivery by faculty, students, and staff. Through the 6-week COVID-19 surge response, more than 10 000 hours of hospital nurse staffing were provided by nursing school faculty and students; over 770 worked shifts that provided approximately 30% of the full surge hospital supplemental staffing and approximately 46 000 vaccine encounters. Well-established academic-clinical nursing partnerships allow for quick pivots in the rapidly changing COVID-19 environment that can enhance nursing clinical proficiency and competency, augment clinically immersive learning, and reinforce analytics to measure health outcomes, lower costs, improve access, quality, safety, and workforce conditions.

MeSH terms

  • COVID-19* / epidemiology
  • Faculty, Nursing
  • Humans
  • Pandemics
  • SARS-CoV-2
  • Schools, Nursing