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and Stevens 2013). This dual role of nurse-academic and nurse-clinician has led to practice being specifically recognized as part of scholarship by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN). The AACN formally recognized the scholarship of practice as a form of knowledge generation. In its position paper 20 years ago, Defining Scholarship for the Discipline of Nursing, the AACN (1999) defines scholarship pursued by academic-tenure-track or clinical-track nursing faculty as:
those activities that systematically advance the teaching, research and practice of nursing through rigorous inquiry that (1) is significant to the profession, (2) is creative, (3) can be documented, (4) can be replicated or elaborated, and (5) can be peer-reviewed through various methods (p. 2).
Within nursing, the scholarship of practice applies nursing and related knowl- edge to the assessment and validation of patient care outcomes, the measurement of quality-of-life indicators, the development and refinement of practice protocols/
strategies, the evaluation of systems of care, and the analysis of innovative health care delivery models (AACN 1999). Research findings from the scholarship of practice are directly applied in procedures, clinical protocols, and practice guide- lines (Riley et al. 2002). One of the basic principles of a scholarship of practice is the changed role of the investigator from expert to collaborator and facilitator who engages the target population or sample-the client or patient-in a cooperative part- nership relationship and with appropriate sensitivity (Burgener 2001). Nursing practice models, especially in advanced practice nursing, bring essential expertise to the health care arena that addresses both quality and access problems. Clinical scholarship activities are an important vehicle for studying and articulating these skills. Therefore, the data derived from these scholarly activities are needed to describe nursing’s commitment to patients and to highlight the particular ability of nurses to address the complex needs of people and systems (Fiand et al. 2004).
The scholarship of application, or practice scholarship, encompasses all aspects of the delivery of nursing services. Competence in practice is the method by which knowledge in the profession is both advanced and applied. Components of the scholarship of practice includes the development of clinical knowledge which entails systematic development and application of theoretical formulations and the conduct of clinically applicable research and evaluation studies in clinical areas of expertise (AACN 1999). Cameron-Traub (1995) considered scholarship in nursing to include three activities: conceptual processes (rationality; thinking), clinical pro- cesses (through practice) and empirical processes (through sensory perception).
That said, the effort to broaden the meaning of scholarship simply cannot succeed until the academy has clear standards for evaluating this wider range of scholarly work (Glassick et al. 1997, p. 5).
Eighteen years ago, Burgener (2001) stated very concisely, “foremost among those expected outcomes of the scholarship of practice is that more use of practice- based research methods will contribute to the goal of finding answers to real-world health problems” (p. 53). An individual’s potential for performance in any role is enormous, especially if it is not restricted and constrained from the onset. Therefore,
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it is time to view faculty practice with a wider vision, to allow the full development of each individual person as a true scholar (Newland and Truglio-Londrigan 2003, p. 277). In these faculty practice partnerships, nursing faculty have access to sub- jects for their research and clinicians have access to research experts and consulta- tion. The outcomes of such partnerships include enhanced evidence-based practice, increased grant funding, and overall improvement in the “generation, dissemina- tion, and application of knowledge for the improvement of nursing practice and patient outcomes” (Dreher et al. 2001, p. 114). As far back as 2007, based on Boyer’s definition of scholarship, the following definition of faculty practice was recommended: “Faculty practice is the provision of direct and indirect nursing care with the goal of integrating the four missions of the School of Nursing: scholar- ship, professional practice, teaching, and service. Direct modalities include inter- ventions or services for individuals, families, groups, communities, and systems, while indirect modalities include education, mentoring, leadership, collaboration, consultation and research” (Becker et al. 2007, p. 51). According to Newland and Truglio-Londrigan (2003) the question that warrants an answer is how can faculty practice be integrated within the institution’s cultural values? Practice has never left nursing education but has become an optional add-on rather than an integral component of the traditional academic triad model; hence the structure of faculty roles within nursing education must facilitate faculty practice to ensure this recon- nection (Newland and Truglio- Londrigan 2003, p. 277). A survey was mailed to the membership of the National Organisation of Nurse Practitioner Faculties to examine the differences between practicing faculty who were tenured and those who were non-tenured and to identify predictors of tenure in the USA with a 50%
response (n = 452) obtained (Pohl et al. 2012). The findings revealed that more than three quarters of the sample (76%, n = 343) were practicing, and another 20%
(n = 91) indicated that although they were not practicing, others at their institutions were engaged in clinical practice. Another 4% (n = 18) reported that no faculty members were practicing at their institutions. Of note, more than 51% reported that practice was not considered in either promotion or tenure decisions at their institu- tion (Pohl et al. 2012). However, more than half (55%) of the respondents reported that faculty practice at their institution integrated practice, teaching, and research.
This highlights a conflict for practicing faculty. If practice is encouraged or required, it needs to be recognised in promotion and tenure when there are schol- arly outcomes (Pohl et al. 2012).
The challenge currently is for nursing faculty to ensure that the integration of practitioner, educator and researcher roles are explicit rather than elusive across the dimensions of discovery, integration, application, teaching and engagement.
The debate warrants further exploration as the scholarship of practice would require specific and consistent resources to enact its essence such as outreach scholarship as a community process. The interesting scenario here is that advanced practice nursing practitioners are ideally placed to participate in the scholarship of application via faculty practice partnerships on account of their access to service users and key stakeholders aligned with their local, national and international health policy context agenda.
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