Charting new frontiers: Advancing practice-based scholarship in nursing academia

Background

Nursing leaders have long called for the advancement of nursing science through practice scholarship. Clinical track nursing faculty are well-positioned to lead practice-based scholarship. However, there is often a lack of coordinated and strategic support for clinical nursing faculty to engage in and disseminate scholarship.

Purpose

The purpose of this article is to describe the implementation and outcomes of a strategic infrastructure designed to support clinical track nursing faculty in developing practice-based scholarship.

Methods

The Practice Scholarship Advisor role (0.2 FTE) was created to support scholarship for clinical track faculty engaged in academic-practice partnerships. Comprehensive strategies for quality improvement planning and dissemination support were piloted from 2022 to 2024.

Findings

Clinical track faculty submitted professional conference abstracts (n = 12) and peer-reviewed journal manuscripts (n = 6). First time presenters and authors accounted for most submissions. Clinical track faculty were promoted and became enthusiastic about scholarship.

Conclusion

Practice-based scholarship support requires distinct strategies and resources that when strategically resourced and implemented, yield increased scholarship for clinical track nursing faculty. In turn, nursing scholarship and innovation are amplified, thereby advancing nursing science.