The influencing factors of academic-practice partnerships in evidence-based nursing practice in China: a longitudinal qualitative study

This study explored the factors influencing the development and sustainability of academic–practice partnerships for evidence-based nursing practice from the perspectives of academic and clinical nursing staff. Implementing evidence-based nursing practice in clinical settings remains challenging. Academic-practice partnerships offer a potential strategy for supporting evidence-based nursing practice implementing, yet little is known regarding the factors that facilitate or hinder these partnerships from the perspectives of nurses directly involved in such collaborations. A longitudinal qualitative study was conducted from April to October 2024. Participants were purposively recruited from an intervention project designed to promote academic-practice partnerships in evidence-based nursing practice. Data were collected through two rounds of focus-group interviews, with 30 participants attending the first round and 19 attending the second, which were conducted midway through and after completion of the intervention projects, respectively. Semi-structured individual interviews were also conducted with 22 participants after completion of their respective projects. Inductive content analysis was used to analyze the interview data. The analysis revealed that the success of an academic-practice partnership for evidence-based nursing practices is shaped by a dynamic interplay of factors across four interconnected themes: characteristics of the project, characteristics of the individual collaborators, internal factors of the partnership, and external factors of the partnership. Importantly, the salience of these factors varied over time, with different factors becoming more prominent across the early, middle, and later stages of partnership development. This study identifies multilevel factors, including project characteristics, individual factors, internal factors, and external factors, that collectively shape the feasibility and sustainability of academic-practice partnerships in implementing evidence-based nursing practices. Importantly, the salience of these factors varies across stages of partnership development, highlighting the dynamic nature of academic–practice collaboration. These findings underscore the importance of context- and stage-sensitive support at the individual, team, and organizational levels and provide practical guidance for sustaining such partnerships. Not applicable.