Leveraging Graduate Academic-Practice Partnerships to Transform Health System Outcomes.

Academic and clinical site partnerships are not new. However, many of these have not resulted in graduates of nursing education programs who are prepared to fulfill their full potential as newly employed professionals. This article describes an education program for Doctorate of Nursing Practice (DNP) students in which the students, under the close supervision of academic faculty, utilize their statistical analyses and complex system coursework to study and address "wicked" problems faced by health care organizations. This partnership between academia and practice is benefitting practice partners, students, and patients.