CON Scholarship Guidelines for Doctoral-Prepared Faculty Role Differentiation

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UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA MEDICAL CENTER COLLEGE OF NURSING
Guidelines for Faculty Role Differentiation	Subsection: Appendix B1
Section - Information	Originating Date: January, 2006
Responsible Reviewing Agency: Executive Council	Revised: January, 2007 Revised: November, 2007
J:/RESOURCE MANUAL/Table of Contents College of Nursing Resource Manual

I. Overview

The College of Nursing shoulders responsibility for effectively addressing its missions and meeting its responsibilities to the University of Nebraska Medical Center and to the state of Nebraska. The faculty of the College collectively assumes the responsibility and associated activity of fulfilling the teaching, research, service, and practice missions of the College in concert with the College's Strategic and Long Range Plan.

Within this broad mandate, the relative proportion of effort devoted to each of the missions by any single faculty varies. While all faculty are expected to teach and participate in service, the relative weight of these and other activities varies according to the needs of the College and the individual strengths and training of each faculty.

Doctorally prepared faculty are expected to be productive in a program of scholarship. Based on these considerations, faculty and their Chairperson or Assistant Dean mutually create an annual faculty activity plan that includes teaching and service, and in addition, a focus for scholarship, either teaching, research, or practice.

Scholarship in the areas of teaching, research and practice is critical for the advancement of the discipline, for creating an optimal environment for student learning, and for meeting the College’s obligations to the University. Scholarship is defined as generating and disseminating new knowledge. New knowledge can be in any number of areas, for example, new teaching methods and models, data-based research, synthesis of extant knowledge, practice innovations, and the development of evidence-based practice guidelines and protocols. New knowledge is disseminated through scholarly publications in respected, peer-reviewed journals and presentations to regional, national, and international audiences. In addition, faculty shoulder the responsibility to bring in funding to support their scholarship. Faculty receive investment time for scholarship with the expectation that they will become funded for this effort. Tangible outcomes, such as funded grants and contracts and publications are considered the return on investment.

II. Faculty Preferred Activity Plan Guidelines

The Dean and Executive Council annually assess the needs and resources of the College of Nursing for the next academic year. Department Chairs/Division Deans collaborate with each other and the appropriate Associate Deans and Directors to determine teaching assignments so as to cover the courses of the College.

Three pathways of scholarship for doctorally prepared faculty include being teaching-intensive, research-intensive and practice- intensive. Doctorally prepared faculty propose their professional goals for the next year and negotiate with their Chair/Assistant Dean for their activity plan.

Master’s prepared faculty also propose their professional goals for the academic year. According to their contracts, teaching is their major focus with committee service as appropriate. Master’s faculty are encouraged to engage in scholarly activities as time and interest allows.

Annual activity expectations for doctorally-prepared faculty

Doctorally-prepared faculty negotiate their preferred focus of scholarship among teaching, research, or practice.

Teaching Intensive Faculty

It is anticipated that teaching-intensive faculty will have a program of scholarship for knowledge development related to teaching and training programs, and will disseminate results in publications and presentations. Teaching intensive faculty will want to be recognized for teaching excellence beyond course evaluations, such as in requests for teaching consultation, local and regional teaching awards, textbook awards, etc. In order for a faculty who is teaching-intensive to negotiate substantial time for teaching scholarship, grant funding must be obtained, such as with training grants and funding for teaching innovations.

Research Intensive Faculty

It is anticipated that research-intensive faculty will have a research program for knowledge development and will disseminate results in publications and presentations which indicate productivity as a researcher. Grant funding must be pursued and is required in order for a faculty who is research-intensive to negotiate substantial time for research. Research intensive faculty should have the background training in research methods that is generally expected for the conduct of research by funding agencies.

Practice Intensive Faculty

It is anticipated that practice-intensive faculty will have a program of practice scholarship for clinical knowledge development. Practice faculty should be leaders in local, regional, and national arenas with such activities as serving on practice boards, conducting quality improvement projects, translating research to practice, conducting evidence-based practice programs, and becoming funded for practice innovations and ventures. Practice faculty must generate income for time spent in actual patient care.

Designation in any of the scholarship-intensive roles is not fixed but rather is predicated on faculty’s past success and future interests, which may change over time, and on the College’s need to cover its missions, especially its teaching obligations. Department Chairs and Division Deans must consider return on invested time in the role in negotiating assignments for the following year.

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(Moved Guidelines for Calculations of Teaching Workload to Appendix B2)