The portfolio with representative breadth and selectivity is a way of demonstrating the scholarship of discovery, teaching, integration, engagement and application.
Selectivity in the context for example, the scholarship of teaching is governed by structuring the portfolio into two major components; work samples which consist of the details of what was taught and what its impact was on students, and a reflective commentary which extends the meaning of the work samples selected by providing a context in which to comprehend their design and choice from the teacher’s own point of view (Way 1997, p. 13). According to Edgerton et al. (1991) the work samples are artefacts of teaching performance, while the reflective commentary which accompanies each artefact provides the teacher’s rationale for using that arte- fact and how it was developed. A reflective essay would introduce the projects selected, addressing their goals, preparation, methods, and results; presentation of the project; and self-critique and development, displaying the thinking behind the work (Glassick et al. 1997, p. 45).
Some scholarly activities are more readily documented than others. The scholar- ship of discovery, with its established system of peer review, especially falls into this category. Grants that were approved by panels of specialists, articles published
6 Career Legacy Cartography Portfolio for Advanced Practice Nursing
109
in refereed journals, and books that were subject to peer review speak to the fact that the scholar’s research has already been deemed worthy for colleagues (Glassick et al. 1997). Many scholarly activities are not so easily reviewed, such as countless hours of preparation and follow-through required for teaching and learning find their chief outlet with students in the lecture theatre. Applied scholarship often results in spoken advice to clients/patients/recipients of the services rather than a publication. Although integrative scholarship sometimes appears in books or jour- nals addressed to colleagues, it may also be revealed in public lectures, magazine articles, radio and television interviews—not the stuff around which departmental/
schools evaluations usually revolve (Glassick et al. 1997). The selected samples needed to document the scholarship of integration and the scholarship of applica- tion is not fundamentally different from those required to document the scholarship of teaching. A reflective essay can introduce examples of best work, and the advanced practice nursing practitioner/aspirant can document the projects with appropriate materials, addressing the same standards in regard to goals, preparation, methods, results, presentation, and reflective critique (Glassick et al. 1997).
6.10.1 Challenges in the Legacy Mapping Process
One challenge to creating the map of the individual’s true meaning is crafting a map that includes activities because they are believed by the individual team member to be important to the team leader. Leaders need to anticipate this possibility and speak to their sincere interest in knowing the desired legacy of each team member (Hinds et al. 2015).
Additionally, using the legacy map can be disconcerting to the team member at times because it does bring to the surface serious issues regarding professional choices and decisions and progress toward the declared legacy (Hinds et al. 2015).
Ensuring an unbiased interaction during the mapping process is very important to the success of the legacy mapping for the individual team member (Hinds et al. 2015).
Also, an individual team member’s efforts to sustain a focus on the declared legacy can be challenging if the member’s access to essential resources is dependent on one team leader who values the legacy, but the legacy is not consistent with the priorities of the greater work setting or in fact their methodologies (Hinds et al. 2015).
Therefore, at the outset establishing the policy context and engaging with the career cartography legacy team and mentor(s) at varying timelines will in the long- term be an important tactic on the part of the advanced practice nursing practitioner/aspirant and conducive to the interpersonal collaborative process. Wilson et al. (2017, p. 336) described how four early-career nurse researchers applied the career cartography framework (Feetham and Doering 2015) to develop individual career maps. Despite diverse research interests and career mapping approaches, common experiences emerged from the four nurse researchers. The creation of a career map was heavily dependent on effective implementation of the career cartography process. During the experience of creating career maps, the nurse researchers recognised that the cartog- raphy process had six additional features beyond a supportive team that were critical
6.10 Professional Profile: Selected Samples of Scholarly Work
110
to successfully crafting a career map in a timely manner (Wilson et al. 2017). Seven common lessons learned throughout the career cartography process included: (1) have a supportive mentorship team, (2) start early and reflect regularly, (3) be brief and to the point, (4) keep it simple and avoid jargon, (5) be open to change, (6) make time, and (7) focus on the overall career destination (Wilson et al. 2017, p. 336).
The work of Donald Schon (1983) in particular, draws attention to the degree to which effective professional practice depends not only on how tasks are approached and problems defined but also on how work proceeds. Effective professionals think about what they are doing while they are carrying out their work (Glassick et al.
1997, p. 35). Insightful reflection includes self-awareness that endures after the com- pletion of a project. An appropriate plan of inquiry should allow for evaluation, guid- ing the scholar’s/practitioner’s thinking about what went right and what went wrong, what opportunities were taken, and which ones were missed. As part of the evalua- tion, a scholar should solicit opinions and show the ability to respond positively to criticism (Glassick et al. 1997, p. 35). Finally, a scholar/practitioner might follow through with activities facilitating the development of new skills or knowledge.
The declared legacy template (see Fig. 6.15) provides a visual representation of the components that an advanced practice nursing practitioner/aspirant can consider that reflect the scholarship of practice, research, teaching, engagement and integra- tion. In order to populate the declared legacy template, evidence of a theoretical framework and a systematic or integrative review of the literature aligned with a detailed surveillance of the policy context, past and current activities could become the initial sounding platform. Then, the methods section may be the next step where dialogue with the team of stakeholders has evolved, including the planning process, and goals are identified that connect to the legacy/destination statement. The process of communication and dissemination will evolve based on dialogue with key stake- holders never losing sight of the global picture while transdisciplinary collaboration sees the advanced practice nursing practitioner pushing aside their specialty zone of comfort locally to solve problems that are highly specific in an international con- text. In the end, reflective critique both promises and encourages intellectual engage- ment (see Fig. 6.15). It leads to better scholarship. Careful evaluation and constructive criticism enrich scholarly work by permitting old projects to progres- sively inform new projects. It is exactly the reflection encouraged by these activities that connects separate projects and makes them integral parts of some larger intel- lectual quest (Glassick et al. 1997). As the advanced practice nursing practitioner/
aspirant engages with the subsequent research task, the next article, the next course or consultation, older projects feed ideas to the new ones, while the new ones deepen the range of implications of those that came before (Glassick et al. 1997). This entire process is iterative, and warrants appraisal of how all the elements of the declared legacy impacts on the policy context, locally, regionally, nationally and globally. The declared legacy statement (see Fig. 6.15) provides the frame and details a sense of the architecture that the advanced practice nursing practitioner can populate within the portfolio on their career trajectory, while sustaining a work ethic of ‘what matters most to the patient as an individual’ is ‘what matters most to the nurse’ in the context of Boyer’s pillars of scholarship and within a clear macro- scopic view of the policy context lens.
6 Career Legacy Cartography Portfolio for Advanced Practice Nursing
111