Integrating the Scholarship of Practice into the Nurse Academician Portfolio

Many nurse academicians are also advanced practice nurses (APNs) in the United States (U.S.). Such faculty are often involved in clinical practice activities which require specific competencies for meeting legal responsibilities and standards for safety. Maintaining practice expectations often takes away the time necessary to address traditional scholarship expected by U.S. institutions for advancement and promotion, and securing tenured academic positions. Scholarship activities for APNs should encompass broad and essential criteria during review and promotional processes; especially important is documentation for the scholarship of application as it applies to APN clinical practice. Nursing faculty who practice as APNs should become adept at documenting scholarship of practice. Appropriate recognition for valid non-traditional types of scholarship activities is essential. According to the Position Statement of the American Association of the Colleges of Nursing (AACN) on Defining Scholarship for the Discipline of Nursing, there are four different dimensions of scholarship. These expand upon the seminal work of Boyer (1990) and consist of: (a) the Scholarship of Discovery, (b) the Scholarship of Teaching, (c) the Scholarship of Application, and (d) the Scholarship of Integration. The purpose of this article is to describe each of the four types of scholarship and demonstrate how the APN/ nurse academician’s clinical practice is an application of scholarship. APN practice is multidimensional and an important basis for review and promotion in academic and/or health care settings.