A conjoint appointment involving a nursing research management role

Nursing conjoint appointments have taken a number of different forms and included various hospital roles such as ward manager, educator and consultant. This paper discusses an appointment trialed at a lecturer/middle manager level with a functional hospital role of Assistant Director of Nursing (research). The hospital role included activities categorized as: research consultations; research proposal reviews; committee membership; and research project involvement. The academic activities included a half-time teaching load, student clinical placement supervision and thesis/treatise student supervision. The development and implementation of the position, including background, role structure, appointment conditions and work practices are discussed. Issues that were highlighted during the 2 year trial included: the teaching load compared to reimbursement funding; the actual activities involved in the position; the level of appointment required to be most effective in the role; and concomitant university study by the appointee.