Building transformational partnerships in nursing.

Over the past decade, the nursing education and delivery system has moved to respond to the crisis in nursing workforce and to prepare itself for what promises to be a long and, at times, challenging struggle. Although much progress has been made, it is increasingly apparent that there are limits to what might be gained from primarily unilateral efforts. Already, issues such as scope of vision, resource constraints, and sustainability are beginning to crop up from even the best of the institutionally based efforts. What is becoming apparent to many leaders in organizations attempting to address these issues is that they cannot go it alone. They must develop partnerships with others in the education-care continuum to have any real hope of mounting and sustaining an effort to build the programs needed to address the long-term challenges of a nursing workforce that is adequate in number and skill. As this realization comes to consciousness, these leaders are becoming more aware of the need for partnerships as the foundation for a different type of strategic response. In taking the early steps toward a partnership, leaders are becoming sensitive to the different demands that a true partnership places on them and their colleagues. These demands may be periodically daunting, but they point to a set of outcomes that may actually have greater consequences for the public and patients. This article is about the creation, care, and feeding of these partnerships.