Nursing shortage. Catalyst for administrative/educational partnership.

A nurse administrator and a nurse educator, already linked in collaborative efforts, developed a creative response to their concerns of recruitment and retention of nursing staff and nursing students. The result was a program of academically sound registered nursing education for a specific full-time employed population. This link between service and education benefitted the health care agency by recruiting and retaining employees, the college by increasing enrollments in the nursing program, and the employees by providing convenient, low cost, accessible education. The phases of assessing, planning, implementing, and evaluating the on-site RN program are reported, and the information of interest and use to other persons in similar situations is presented.