A collaborative model of community health nursing practice

AbstractThis paper discusses a strategic collaborative partnership between aWestern Australian university and a community health service based on a Practice– Research Model. The partnership has involved a senior academic (0.2 FTE) working in the community health setting as a Nurse Research Consultant since 1998. The first section of the paper draws on the nursing literature on collaborative models and describes the broad background to the partnership and development of the Model. The second section presents in detail the results of a recent evaluation that involved a brief survey and follow-up interviews to determine community health nurses’ understanding and perceptions of the partnership Model. Three main themes emerged from the interviews: (1) Advancement of learning captured the extent to which the Nurse Research Consultant position helped to educate nurses and promote and develop research and best-practice; (2) Job satisfaction and self-confidence encompassed the extent to which participants felt nur...