A present-day academic perspective on the Carolina nursing experience: building on the past, shaping the future.

Past, present, and future models of academic-service collaboration are described and projected from an academic perspective. The features that characterize academic-service partnerships during the history of nursing education in America, the goals that drove faculty and academic leaders to engage or disengage in earlier partnerships, and new forms of emerging partnerships are presented, along with a discussion of their importance in the context of environmental change. The foundation for building the Carolina Model between the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and the University of North Carolina Hospitals is a prototype for extending future academic-service initiatives.