The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Nursing and the Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center are the recipients of the 2015 American Association of Colleges of Nursing Exemplary Academic-Practice Partnership Award for their VA Nursing Academic Partnership, which recognizes AACN member institutions involved in highly productive and model academic-practice partnerships.
“The School and BVAMC have enjoyed a 40-year relationship—one that flourished in 2009 when our partnership to plan and develop our original VA Nursing Academy began,” said Dean and Fay B. Ireland Endowed Chair in Nursing Doreen Harper, PhD, RN, FAAN.
This unique partnership is strategically designed to accomplish mutually beneficial goals, the most important being the shared vision to transform the care of Veterans and their families by working collaboratively to educate compassionate, highly competent nurses and nurse practitioners.
AACN recognized the partnership for fulfilling a number of its criteria, including demonstrating an innovative and sustained relationship that extends beyond clinical placements and for demonstrating positive, measurable outcomes.
From the time it was selected as one of the country’s original VA Nursing Academies, now known as the VA Nursing Academic Partnership (VANAP), the partnership has grown to include a Mental Health Nurse Practitioner Residency and the country’s first VA Nursing Academic Partnership for Graduate Education (VANAP-GE).
“This award recognizes the value of the academic and service partnership to benefit the care of Veterans and their families,” said Cynthia Cleveland, DNP, RN, NEBC, Chief Nursing Officer for the Birmingham VAMC.
