Collaborations Between Home Healthcare Agencies and Schools of Nursing: Bridging the Theory–Practice Gap at Home

Home healthcare (HHC) agencies and schools of nursing (SONs) share the mutual goal of using evidence-based knowledge to deliver care while fostering a professionally stimulating environment. As HHC agencies strive to deliver clinically effective, cost-efficient, patient-centered nursing care, SONs use scholarly methods to develop sound practitioners with investigative skills. Collaborations have long existed between these two entities, but few studies describe how theory and practice meld in the ever-growing HHC arena. The purpose of this article is to highlight the need for such future collaborations and to summarize some of the successful collaborative methods used by schools and agencies. Additionally, the collaboration between one nonprofit HHC agency and a university-based SON is described along with the challenges and benefits to both partners.