Passionate scholarship or academic safety: an ethical issue

Are we passionate scholars or is academic safety something to which we aspire? Do we teach our students one thing and practice another? Are some forms of scholarship more acclaimed than others, some methodologies more acceptable? What are the ethical implications in these various questions? In this article, I outline my experiences, both as a student researcher and as an educator, that have brought me to ask these things. Holism is an ideal that many nursing students are taught and encouraged to bring to their practice, and yet holism does not seem, in many instances, to be supported in academia or in bedside practice. I suggest the possible causes for these difficulties and propose solutions. I suggest that the bedrock of ethical practice, both in the academy and with patients, is to bring all of who we are, the alchemic mystery of holism, to everything we do.