There is no question there is a US healthcare workforce shortage coupled with a growing demand for healthcare services. According to Health Resources and Services Administration, more than 99 million Americans lack access to primary care, whereas 160 million lack access to mental health services.1 With the increased demand, an aging workforce, and worsening retention factors such as burnout, the healthcare workforce is estimated to have a shortfall of more than 3.2 million healthcare workers by 2026.2 The numbers of advanced practice RNs (APRNs) are projected to grow by 40% between 2021 and 2031, largely due to increased demand and exiting or retiring workforce.3 Nurse practitioners, 1 of 4 categories of APRNs, now number more than 355 000 and are increasing across all specialties, including mental healthcare, but the majority are educated and trained to practice in primary care.4

One key factor suggested to strengthen the nursing workforce is that of developing a strong conduit of workers through education. Having sufficient faculty and clinical training sites remain critical challenges to nursing education and can have an impact on enrollment and numbers of graduates. In 2021, more than 91 000 qualified applications were turned away because of insufficient faculty, clinical sites, and preceptors.5 With both the workforce shortage and the limitations on the educational pipeline for students, there is ample opportunity for health systems and educational institutions to partner in meeting the mutual objectives of increasing the workforce, while increasing faculty, preceptors, and clinical sites.

Nursing faculty and clinical APRNs can form mutually beneficial partnerships to meet the increasing demand for healthcare services. Clinical APRNs can bring valuable expertise and experience to the classroom, whereas nursing faculty can enhance the clinical workforce and keep their clinical skills sharp by retaining a clinical practice. Many health systems and universities, such as Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Vanderbilt University School of Nursing, have shared agreements in place for clinical APRNs to teach classes, give lectures, or instruct in workshops on a part-time basis and for academic faculty to work part time in a clinical setting. It is a win/win for both organizations. For APRNs, these arrangements can provide a nice balance, expanding both their clinical and academic portfolio of experience.

The next challenge, even more difficult on some level to that of increasing academic faculty, is that of securing preceptors and clinical sites. Quite simply, more preceptors and more clinical sites allow for more students to train, leading to stronger, more robust pipelines of APRNs to enter the workforce. Practicing APRNs provide clinical education and training for APRN students while allowing for an immersive experience within the respective clinical setting. Often, we hear there is a shortage of preceptors; however, with the increasing numbers of APRNs across the United States, there is opportunity to gain efficiency and optimize the current pool of APRN preceptors and clinical sites. Inefficient processes for matching students with preceptors and clinical sites can create a bottleneck and severely impact the numbers of graduating APRNs ready for practice. It is unfortunate that communication and coordination to educate the future workforce are often lacking. Oftentimes, schools will reach out to individual preceptors to establish practical experiences when, ideally, large-scale coordination could maximize capacity. Creating a shared process to identify clinical sites and preceptors, matching to potential students within specific fields of study, requires a close partnership between the school and the health system.

Dr Danielle McCamey's role as assistant dean for Johns Hopkins School of Nursing is to establish clinical practice relationships and partner in efforts to educate students and build the future workforce of APRNs. She shares 3 pearls for strengthening partnerships below:

Academic-practice collaborations are vital to the success of clinical placements. Clinical placements are an essential component of nursing education as they provide students with opportunities to apply their theoretical knowledge in actual clinical settings. Forging partnerships between academic and practice organizations requires interest and investment in the improvement of the clinical placement process. It is important that these partnerships explore ways to create a shared vision where there is mission overlap.

Clinical placement coordinators are essential to bridge the partnership gaps. Coordinating clinical placements can be a challenging task for nursing programs. This is where clinical placement coordinators are needed. Placement coordinators are crucial in ensuring that students are placed in appropriate clinical settings where they can learn and develop the necessary skills to become competent and compassionate nurses. They are dedicated to matching students with appropriate clinical settings and provide support throughout the student's clinical education experience. They play a pivotal role in shaping the future of nursing and ensuring that students are prepared to provide safe, high-quality care to patients.

Health system executives, faculty leaders, and clinical placement coordinators must meet regularly. Creating intentional communication and collaboration strategies allows for organization and efficiency in the placement process, enhances the educational and training experience, and strengthens the relationship at the operational level. This partnership has launched a clinical academic-practice collaborative network. Within this network, the university collaborates with health systems nationwide, to secure a shared vision, innovate, and share best practices. There are 3 subcommittees focused on: preceptor incentives, policy and advocacy, and clinical placement.

The US healthcare workforce is facing a critical shortage combined with a lack of access to healthcare services for millions. To address this challenge, health systems and educational institutions can form academic-practice collaborations to offer clinical APRNs and nursing faculty opportunities to supplement their professional portfolio by teaching or engaging in clinical work. These collaborations can leverage clinical placement coordinators to build strong partnerships, develop a shared vision for successful clinical placement, and secure a pipeline of practice-ready APRNs. These partnerships promote effective communication and sharing of best practices and prepare students to provide safe, high-quality care to patients nationwide.

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