Building collaborative scholarship in an academic nursing community.

In this article, authors report one College of Nursing's efforts to address the challenges of multiple academic role expectations by establishing faculty interest groups to promote collaborative scholarship. The background of the project is described in terms of past and recent academic, financial, and environmental influences. Collaborative scholarship is defined. Literature related to faculty productivity, variations in collaborative scholarship within and across disciplines, and incentives to motivate and reward faculty productivity are discussed. An evaluation of one faculty interest group's process is reported. Amey and Brown's Interdisciplinary Collaboration Model dimensions were used to analyze achievements and challenges. Organizational restructuring and disbandment of these groups provided a second opportunity to reflect on lessons learned. One perspective about the process and educational and professional implications of collaborative scholarship that would be of interest to faculty is provided. Lessons learned may inform other faculty facing the same task.

Clinical nurse specialist education: actualizing the systems leadership competency.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this article was to show how sequenced educational strategies aid in the acquisition of systems leadership and change agent skills, as well as other essential skills for professional clinical nurse specialist (CNS) practice. BACKGROUND: Clinical nurse specialist education offers the graduate student both didactic and clinical experiences to help the student transition into the CNS role. Clinical nurse specialist faculty have a responsibility to prepare students for the realities of advanced practice. Systems leadership is an integral competency of CNS practice. IMPLICATIONS: The contemporary CNS is to be a leader in the translation of evidence into practice. To assist students to acquire this competency, all CNS students are expected to use research and other sources of evidence to identify, design, implement, and evaluate a specific practice change. Anecdotal comments from students completing the projects are offered. Student projects have been focused in acute and critical care, palliative care, and adult/gerontologic health clinical settings; community outreach has been the focus of a few change projects. Examples of student projects related to the systems leadership competency and correlated to the spheres of influence impacted are presented.

Fostering skills for evidence-based practice: The student journal club.

Critical appraisal skills and, importantly, understanding the decision-making process for whether to use or not use research findings in practice, are essential tools nursing educators need to foster in their students. The use of journal clubs as a teaching strategy for nursing education is an excellent way to raise research awareness, improve professional reading habits and critiquing skills, and involve nursing students to prepare them for the expectation of evidence-based practice. While journal clubs are not new strategies, they seem to be underused in formal nursing education. The purpose of this article is to describe a teaching strategy that can be used for large numbers of students, which fosters critical appraisal skills for research utilization in clinical practice through participation in a university-based student journal club. An evaluation of student perceptions of the impact of the student journal club on raising research awareness and teaching the research process is included.

Overcoming barriers and promoting the use of research in practice.

OBJECTIVES: To identify changes in nurse attitudes toward research utilization and the organization's research environment preimplementation and postimplementation of a multifaceted intervention to promote the use of research in practice. BACKGROUND: Nursing practice based on research evidence has been shown to promote positive patient outcomes. Personal characteristics such as positive attitudes and involvement have been positively correlated with research utilization. Organizational culture is a determinant of nurses' use of research in practice. Healthcare organizations must develop a supportive environment in an effort to attract nurses who share a similar philosophy to positively influence the organization's research culture and ultimately the care patients receive. METHODS: A descriptive, cross-sectional, presurvey and postsurvey design was used to identify inpatient nurses' personal and professional characteristics, perceptions of organizational culture, and the effectiveness of organizational strategies. Baseline and post implementation data were collected using the BARRIERS to Research Utilization Scale and the Research Factor Questionnaire. RESULTS: There was improvement in nurses' perception of barriers and organizational culture postimplementation of the multifaceted intervention. Journal club participation was one of the key strategies that facilitated research utilization. CONCLUSIONS: Moving research findings into practice is important for the nursing profession. Barriers to the use of research findings in practice must be modified. A dialogue between administration and staff about how to remove the barriers is critical.