Exploring collaboration in a community-academic partnership.

OBJECTIVE: Community-academic relationships characterized by collaboration can contribute to the preparation of public health nursing students, sustainability of partnerships over time, and innovative solutions to pressing health problems. The purpose of this study was to describe and understand relationship characteristics in a community-academic partnership over time and how the relationship could be improved.

DESIGN AND SAMPLE: A descriptive case study was conducted. Study participants included partnership staff, organizational leaders, community residents, and student nurses involved in the partnership between 2011 and 2015.

MEASURES: Methods included focus groups, documents, interviews, and surveys.

RESULTS: Four main themes emerged and include analysis findings that capture the relationship characteristics between partners and how the relationship could be improved: Time, Communication, Goals, and Sharing.

CONCLUSIONS: Findings on how to improve relationship characteristics offer clear suggestions for academic and community partners on ways to move toward collaborative partnerships that can address health inequities and develop a competent and advanced public health nursing workforce in the 21st century.