Building collaborative scholarship in an academic nursing community

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Academic Administration
• Collaborative Scholarship

Background:

• Addressing challenges of multiple academic role expectations in a College of Nursing.
• Influenced by academic, financial, and environmental factors.
• Defining collaborative scholarship and reviewing literature on faculty productivity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To report on the establishment and evaluation of faculty interest groups.
• To promote collaborative scholarship among nursing faculty.
• To identify lessons learned for faculty development.

Main Methods:

• Establishing faculty interest groups.
• Evaluating one group's process using Amey and Brown's Interdisciplinary Collaboration Model.
• Reflecting on lessons learned after organizational restructuring.

Main Results:

• Analysis of achievements and challenges within a faculty interest group.
• Identification of educational and professional implications of collaborative scholarship.
• Insights gained from the experience of group restructuring and disbandment.

Conclusions:

• Collaborative scholarship initiatives require careful planning and adaptation.
• Lessons learned can inform strategies for supporting faculty in academic roles.
• Interdisciplinary collaboration models provide a framework for evaluating such initiatives.