AIM: The aim of this paper is twofold: to conceptualize tensions related to the academization of nursing, and to analyse a case study, describing how such tensions were dealt with in the process of establishing a new nursing department. BACKGROUND: This paper represents the first stage of a case study of the transformation of a hospital-based nursing school into an academic programme, carried out as a joint venture between a local hospital school and a college in northern Israel. METHODS: This paper is based on action research. The participants were 19 members of the new academic faculty and 3 members of an action research center. FINDINGS: The three inter-related tensions surfaced in the research process are: (1) the status of nursing and nurses, (2) the role of research and critical thinking in nursing education and practice, and (3) the characteristics of students, who should enroll in and graduate from nursing programmes, or in other words, the character of the 'ideal nurse'. CONCLUSIONS: An action research process enables new teams to put tensions on the table so they can be openly addressed through ongoing reflection, inquiry, learning, evaluation and redesign.
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