title: Scholarship reconsidered: implications for reward and recognition of academic staff in schools of nursing and beyond.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This paper discusses the issues facing the nursing academic workforce and the development of a project at the University of Wollongong in Australia which attempts to address this problem.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  The project draws on Boyer's work around 'scholarship reconsidered' to enable new ways of thinking about the nature of 'research' and how the work of a diversifying workforce can be recognized and rewarded within institutions.
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted a series of interviews with senior university staff to identify key issues around academic promotion processes. Feedback from these interviews, along with extensive internal and external consultation and benchmarking, will be used to redraft promotion documentation that includes discipline-specific performance expectations.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Interviews revealed a number of perceived and actual barriers to promotion of academic staff who did not conform to a 'traditional' view of research expectations. It was widely felt that unspoken expectations about research performance were being used to judge applications for promotion, and that this disadvantaged people from practice or professional backgrounds, or people who had heavy administrative or clinical roles.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Internal university processes need to reflect the reality of a diversified workforce. Practice and professional disciplines have responsibilities beyond meeting traditional research output measurements. More flexible and transparent expectation guidelines and career development pathways are needed to build holistic schools and faculty and enable maximum staff productivity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  By redefining scholarship, schools and faculties are able to meet the multiple demands of the government, the institution, individual staff, students and the profession. Not everyone can do traditional research all the time, and staff involved in other scholarly work should be able to rewarded and promoted. By taking the lead in this issue, nursing as a discipline can set its own agenda, and pave the way for other disciplines. It can also go a long way to solving issues around the dwindling academic workforce.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Health andBehavioural Science, University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia. kyliesm@uow.edu.au
authors.forename: Kylie M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: Patrick A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Crookes
authors.forename: Fabienne
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Else
authors.forename: Ellie
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Crookes
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D001315:Australia; D002322:Career Mobility; D004650:Employee Performance Appraisal / Q000379:methods*; D005181:Faculty, Nursing; D006801:Humans; D015402:Nursing Education Research; D015404:Nursing Methodology Research; D036301:Qualitative Research; D012201:Reward; D012579:Schools, Nursing