Communities of Practice: An Innovative Approach to Building Academic–Practice Partnerships

Abstract Schools of nursing continue to face challenges in securing clinical education for nurse practitioner (NP) students. Creating mechanisms to build and enhance academic–practice partnerships between nursing schools and clinical practice settings based on mutual goals and respect provides opportunities for both nurse practitioner students and clinical partners. This article describes how an academic–practice partnership was established using the Communities of Practice as a framework. The project outcome was successful in many ways, including recruiting and enhancing preceptors and creating opportunities for NP students to learn about community-based health care and practice in underserved primary care practice.