EDUCATIONAL AND SERVICE PARTNERSHIPS: AN EXAMPLE OF GLOBAL FLATTENING ANITA FINKELMAN, MSN, RN,* AND CAROLE KENNER, DNS, RNC, FAANy Educational and service partnerships are not new, but many of these partnerships occurred in the same town or state in the past. Today, with the heightened use of technology, these partnerships are spanning the globe (e.g., outsourcing of services is growing, with India becoming the call center for the world). What does this global flattening trend mean for nursing education and service? How will this trend impact nursing faculty and service shortages? We explored the current global flattening and its use as a potential strategy to combat nursing workforce issues. (Index words: Collaboration; Partnerships; Technology; Education; Service) J Prof Nurs 24:59–65, 2008. A 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. T HOMAS FRIEDMAN’S BOOK, The World is Flat. A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century , presents a radical view of the changing world. In the mid–1990s, this noted journalist stated that bthe platform for the flattening of the world has started to emergeQ. First the falling walls, the opening of Windows, the digitalization of content, and the spreading of the Internet browser seamlessly connected people as never before (p. 80). With this unprecedented level of people-to-people global communication and the sharing of information across work flow programs, the ability to work collab- oratively anywhere in the world is not only possible but also encouraged. How does this globalization equate to the world being flat? Empowering individuals at the grassroots level is a critical component of Globalization. Information and how it is used are no longer limited to an elite few and now available to the world at large. There are, of course, still areas of the world that do not have the economic resources to open their citizens to the Internet and all of the myriad forms of technology, but this is rapidly changing. What does this really mean for those of us in health care education and practice? It means that it is highly possible to create partnerships between educational institutions and clinical facilities in the same state, the same country, or around the world. The creation of a curriculum and its delivery are literally without bound- aries. Expansion of resources, like in many industries, can be done by outsourcing product development, such as online classes and online registration—even the development of presentations can occur in Bangalore, India, for use in Korea or the United States. Expertise expands by virtue of opening the doors to the world. Some educational institutions have already begun to flatten nursing, but many others have kept the status quo. We examined the seven new rules of global work identified by Friedman (2005) as they apply to nursing education and practice as well as the workforce shortage. Examples will be given from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center College of Nursing and its partners. Friedman’s Seven Rules and Their Implications for Nursing Rule 1. When the world goes flat—and you are feeling flattened—reach for a shovel and dig inside yourself. Don’t try to build walls. (p. 340) Nursing needs to embrace changes in information technology and recognize the need to be innovative in how it uses information technology in practice and in expanding nursing education. This change supports the emphasis placed by the Institute of Medicine [IOM] (2003a) on informatics as well as use of information systems and technology as a needed 4Adjunct Assistant Professor, College of Nursing, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, OK. yDean/Professor, College of Nursing, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, OK. Address correspondence to Ms. Finkelman: Adjunct Assistant Professor, 3550 Principio Ave., Cincinnati, OH 45208. E-mail: anita-finkelman@ouhsc.edu 8755-7223/$ - see front matter Journal of Professional Nursing, Vol 24, No 1 (January–February), 2008: pp 59–65 59 A 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.profnurs.2007.02.002