Transforming practice into clinical scholarship.

Area of Science:

• Nursing Scholarship
• Clinical Practice Advancement
• Knowledge Production in Healthcare

Background:

• Boyer's expanded scholarship model includes integration, application, and teaching beyond discovery.
• Growing interest exists in applying Boyer's framework to nursing knowledge production.
• The specific relationship between clinical scholarship and Boyer's framework remains underexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To define clinical scholarship as synonymous with Boyer's scholarship of application.
• To examine the evolution from scholarly practice to clinical scholarship.
• To integrate clinical scholarship within Boyer's established framework.

Main Methods:

• This paper is a discussion based on literature review.
• Data sources include literature published between 1983 and 2015.
• Boyer's scholarship framework serves as the theoretical basis for the discussion.

Main Results:

• Viewing clinical scholarship as Boyer's scholarship of application facilitates its integration into a recognized framework.
• Applying criteria such as documentation, peer review, and dissemination ensures the rigor and utility of clinical knowledge.
• Distinguishing between scholarly practice and clinical scholarship can foster the development of clinical scholarship.

Conclusions:

• Linking clinical scholarship to Boyer's scholarship of application aids nurses in generating relevant clinical knowledge.
• Further discussion is needed on how clinical scholarship can address the theory-practice gap.
• Expanding the publication of clinical scholarship is warranted to align with its goals.