Establishing innovative partnerships to advance development of aged care nursing

This paper seeks to locate issues for aged care service provision and development in Australia in the broader context of changes in the health care system overall in the last decade. Issues that arise out of these changes are discussed, as well as factors that have impacted on and affected aged care services. Issues that need to be addressed in the area of research for aged care services and in particular nursing practice are also discussed. The authors' perspective is that research endeavour directed towards development practice in this field is best conducted using a collaborative model which addresses nationally identifiable research priorities and issues in aged care. This paper presents some of the authors' experiences in establishing collaborative partnerships for development of aged care research and practice development. Challenges and benefits that we have identified through our shared work and in one large funded research project are presented, as well as some of the challenges, which need to be considered in collaborative work.