Collaborative learning partnership creates the perinatal nurse practitioner.

A Jesuit university and a large medical center in the Rocky Mountain region combined talents and resources in response to a community need to develop a new practitioner program. Together, the university and the medical center created what neither one alone could have: the perinatal nurse practitioner (PNNP) program. At the time it was developed it was the first of its kind in the country. The collaborative relationship, the PNNP role, and the curriculum are described.