A model for scholarship in nursing: the case of a private liberal arts college

Abstract

Faculty in the Department of Nursing at Augustana College, Sioux Falls, SD, focused their faculty development efforts for the 1997-1998 academic year on the creation of a scholarship model that would be both discipline-specific and relevant to Augustana's private liberal arts college identity. Rooted in Boyer's seminal re-examination of scholarship in academia, the Augustana model defines scholarship in nursing and delineates dimensions of scholarship, as well as the qualities of a scholar and criteria for evaluating scholarly endeavors. This evolving model has proven useful as a framework for faculty self-evaluation and peer review, as a guide for orienting undergraduate and graduate students to their own scholarly development, and as a framework to define criteria for final graduate student projects. The model is presented as an invitation to individual and collective scholarship development for every clinician, educator, theorist, and researcher in nursing.