When the mission is teaching: does nursing faculty practice fit?

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Academic Scholarship

Background:

• Nursing faculty practice is increasingly integrated into academic roles.
• Liberal arts colleges prioritize teaching, requiring faculty practice to align with this mission.
• Existing literature and frameworks (Schon, Boyer) support nursing faculty practice as scholarship.

Purpose of the Study:

• To validate nursing faculty practice as scholarship within liberal arts colleges.
• To identify attributes for evaluating scholarly nursing practice outcomes.
• To analyze "scholarship in support of teaching" as a model for documenting practice's alignment with institutional missions.

Main Methods:

• Literature review of scholarly practice in nursing, Schon, and Boyer.
• Identification of attributes for scholarly practice evaluation.
• Analysis of the "scholarship in support of teaching" model.

Main Results:

• Nursing faculty practice is validated as scholarship.
• Key attributes for evaluating scholarly practice outcomes are identified.
• "Scholarship in support of teaching" emerges as a viable model for documentation.

Conclusions:

• Nursing faculty practice is scholarship and can be documented to support the teaching mission.
• The "scholarship in support of teaching" model provides a framework for liberal arts nursing programs.
• This approach ensures practice contributes to both scholarly and pedagogical goals.