Why academic nursing must help shape the future of health care delivery

Health care in the United States stands at a crossroads. Chronic diseases are rising, workforce shortages persist and costs continue to outpace outcomes. At the same time, academic nursing — long a cornerstone of health care education — remains underutilized as a driver of system-level change.

It is time for that change to change.

Academic nursing must play a larger, more influential role in shaping how health care is delivered. Deans, faculty and nurse scientists are uniquely positioned not only to educate the next generation of clinicians, but also to design care models, inform policy and lead innovations that improve outcomes – especially for patients managing chronic disease.

Schools of nursing have traditionally focused on preparing students for practice. That mission remains essential – but it is no longer enough. Academic nursing leaders must also help design the systems in which their graduates will work. This includes:

• Workforce design: Rethinking team-based care models that fully leverage both nurse practitioners in primary and acute care settings and nurses managing chronic diseases.
• Care innovation: Developing scalable, evidence-based approaches that improve access, coordination and outcomes.
• Community health leadership: Partnering with communities to address social determinants of health and close equity gaps.
• Policy engagement: Ensuring that nursing expertise informs reimbursement models, scope-of-practice regulations and care delivery reform.

Nurses represent the largest segment of the health care workforce. Yet too often, their expertise is absent from high-level decision-making. Academic nursing can — and should — change that.

Chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension and heart disease account for the majority of health care spending and patient burden in the U.S. These conditions require continuous management, patient education and relationship-based care – areas where nurses excel.

Nurse-led care models have repeatedly demonstrated:

• Improved patient outcomes.
• Increased patient satisfaction.
• Lower overall costs.

Despite this evidence, reimbursement structures have not kept pace. Expanding insurance coverage for nurse-led chronic disease management is not just a policy adjustment, it’s a strategic necessity. Academic nursing institutions must be at the forefront of generating the evidence, advocating for payment reform and preparing nurses to lead in this space.

At the Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation, we are actively reimagining what academic nursing can contribute to health care delivery.

Our ASU Health Clinics model reflects a powerful integration of care, education and research. What began as a pilot — serving approximately 15 patients per month — has rapidly evolved. Today, the clinics are seeing 15 patients per week, within a limited trial open to ASU employees enrolled in a participating university health plan.

This growth signals more than demand. It reflects:

• Trust in nurse-led care.
• The value of accessible, relationship-based services.
• The potential of integrated academic-clinical-research models.

Every patient encounter serves multiple purposes:

• Care delivery: High-quality, patient-centered services.
• Education: Real-world learning experiences for students across health disciplines.
• Research: Opportunities to study outcomes, refine models and generate evidence for broader adoption.

This is what the future of health care can look like – where learning, discovery and care happen simultaneously.

The challenges facing health care today are too complex to be solved by any single discipline, but nursing brings a perspective that is too often missing: one grounded in holistic care, patient advocacy and practical innovation.

Now is the moment for academic nursing to step forward more boldly. We call on nursing deans and faculty nationwide to:

• Engage in workforce redesign to ensure nurses practice at the top of their education and training.
• Lead care innovation efforts that prioritize prevention and chronic disease management.
• Partner with communities to address upstream drivers of health.
• Advocate for policy and payment reform, including insurance coverage for nurse-led services.
• Build and scale academic-practice models, like ASU Health Clinics, that integrate care, education and research.

Health care transformation will not happen at the margins. It requires leadership from those who understand both the science of care and the lived experience of patients.

Academic nursing sits at that intersection.

By expanding our voice and our role, we can help build a health care system that is more accessible, more equitable and more effective for all.

The future of health care depends on it.