Targeted Strategies to Promote Nursing Faculty Individual and Collective Scholarly Excellence

The Georgetown University (GU) Department of Nursing (DON) is committed to professional development of faculty to promote individual scholarly excellence, as well as, providing opportunities for collective DON scholarship. Recent targeted strategies supported by DON leadership and the DON Council for the Advancement of Nursing Science have demonstrated positive outcomes. For example, the Writing Group, established in 2012 and conducted by the Assistant Chair for Research via conference call, is one promoter for the increased faculty publication rate observed from 2012 (N=24) to 2013 (N=65). Building upon this success, a second Writing Group was formed in 2014 that focuses on clinical manuscripts. Publication efforts of the faculty teaching through Nursing@Georgetown which is the DON distance education platform launched in 2011, represent their 4-year intense effort as distance education innovators and are organized centrally within the DON to promote efficient data retrieval and manuscript submission. DON faculty scholarly interests were assessed to fit naturally into 4 foci of research efforts: translational research, focusing on symptom science; community based participatory research; nursing education science; and global health. These informal centers of scholarly effort not only promote faculty synergy to incubate ideas for grant submissions, but also establish new and use existing inter-professional collaborations. For example, the symptom science group synergizes knowledge and skills of diverse faculty including a family nurse practitioner with cardiovascular expertise, 2 experienced nurse anesthetists, one with experience in acupuncture for pain management, an oncology clinical nurse specialist with expertise in testing novel interventions for pain management in this population, and a nurse scientist with expertise in the field of opioid addiction. Their combined clinical and research expertise allows grant submissions built upon interdisciplinary team science. The nurse education science focus is building upon the tradition of pedagogical excellence established in 1903 through implementation of and evaluation of efficacy of innovative teaching strategies. This effort aligns with the University-wide emphasis on educational innovation as modeled by the GU Center for Innovation and Leadership in Education, and the newly created position of Assistant Dean for Educational Innovation within the School of Nursing & Health Studies (NHS). Global health research and scholarship provides numerous opportunities for faculty engagement with international health systems. Community based participatory research is conducted in collaboration with the numerous health care agencies served by the DON faculty with rich opportunities also available in the NHS-wide Center for Health Equity–Research, Implementation, and Teaching. These 4 foci of faculty scholarship also promote faculty publications, faculty-student publications and research, and presentations at the University, local, regional, national, and international level.  Two key NHS values are Cura Personalis, “care for the whole person”, and Excellence. Promoting individual and collective scholarship in our DON faculty operationalizes these values through creation of a supportive academic environment conducive to individual and collective scholarly activity.