Transforming veterans health care through academic-practice partnerships.

The Veterans Health Affairs Office of Academic Affiliations (OAA) has invested in the creation of academic-practice partnerships to transform the care of veterans and their families. This article details how a long-standing relationship between the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing and the Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center grew into such a partnership. The three programs that now exist within the Birmingham Veterans Affairs Nursing Academic Partnership (VANAP) umbrella are described, including an undergraduate VA nurse scholars program that has sustained beyond OAA funding, a VANAP graduate education program for psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners (NPs), and a Mental Health NP Residency. Key features of the programs are noted as are outcomes and lessons learned for building mutual goals and a sustainable academic-practice partnership. With the recent passage of the Veterans Choice Program, the importance of educating all nurses about veterans and veterans' health is stressed.

Caring for America's Veterans: The Power of Academic-Practice Partnership.

Veterans receive care across the entire health system. Therefore, the workforce needs knowledge and awareness of whether patients are Veterans and the impact of their military service on their physical and mental health. Recent reports of limitations in access for Veterans seeking health care have highlighted this need across all health care settings. Academic-practice partnerships are one mechanism to align the need for improved health care services within the Veteran population while advancing nursing practice in the Veterans Health Administration and surrounding communities. The key to strong partnerships and sustained collaboration is shared goals, mutual trust and respect, the development of formal relationships, and support of senior leadership that fosters the joint vision and mission to improve nursing care for Veterans. This article describes the evolving partnership between one Veterans Health Administration Medical Center and a School of Nursing, which aligned strategic goals across both organizations to increase the capacity and capability of services provided to Veterans.

Partnership to improve quality care for veterans: the VA Nursing Academy.

More than 22 million living veterans reside in the United States. In fact, understanding military culture and the experiences of these veterans is important to their ongoing health care and the unique challenges faced by many. The Veterans Affairs (VA) Nursing Academy began in 2007 to fund pilot partnerships between schools of nursing and local VA health care facilities to better serve our veteran population. Fifteen academic/service partnerships were selected for funding between 2007 and 2009 with the goals of expanding faculty and professional development, increasing nursing student enrollment, providing opportunities for educational and practice innovations, and increasing the recruitment and retention of VA nurses. This article details critical components of the partnership developed between the Birmingham VA Medical Center and the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Nursing, a VA Nursing Academy partnership funded in the 2009 cohort. Site-specific goals of the partnership are described along with a discussion of the framework used to develop the Birmingham VA Nursing Academy, which includes relationship building, engagement, governance, evaluation of outcomes, and sustainability. The logic model developed for the partnership is included, and the interim outputs and outcomes of this practice-academic partnership are detailed, a number of which can be replicated by VAs and schools of nursing across the country.