Baccalaureate nurse educators' workload and productivity: ascription of values and the challenges of evaluation

An examination of the productivity of baccalaureate nurse educators relative to the importance they ascribe to teaching, scholarship, service and professional practice may provide insight into the direction of higher education for nursing. This review considers the interdisciplinary debate over how workload is distributed and how productivity is evaluated. The complexities of objectifying what professors do and how well they do it will be presented. It is suggested that we consider alternative approaches to determine workload and evaluate the productivity of nurse educators. This analysis affirms our disciplinary strengths and may have implications for other professional practice disciplines.