College of Nursing

Promotion and Tenure Guidelines

 

Tenure Track Appointment, Tenure, and Promotion Guidelines

The College of Nursing follows the University of Missouri-St. Louis Procedures Concerning Tenure and Promotion as well as those for post tenure review. This document describes the considerations that are used in the College of Nursing in order to evaluate candidates for promotion, tenure and post tenure.

The College of Nursing has adopted a model from the AACN document, Defining Scholarship for the Discipline of Nursing (1999), in establishing criteria for tenure and promotion. The College also has adopted the AACN definition of scholarship. “Scholarship in nursing can be defined as those activities that systematically advance the teaching, research, and practice of nursing within and across disciplinary boundaries through rigorous inquiry that 1) is significant to the profession, 2) is creative, 3) can be documented, 4) can be replicated or elaborated, and 5) can be peer-reviewed through various methods” (AACN, 1999).

Boyer (1990) describes a model of scholarship that encompasses four areas that are “salient to academic nursing, where each specified areas supports the values of a profession committed to both social relevance and scientific advancement” (AACN, 1999). These include the scholarships of discovery, teaching, application, and integration.

The scholarship of discovery is inquiry that creates disciplinary and professional knowledge and takes the form of primary empirical research, historical research, theory development, methodological studies, and philosophical inquiry.

The scholarship of teaching is inquiry that produces knowledge to support mentoring in the science and art of nursing, builds bridges between the teacher’s understanding and the student’s learning, and takes the form of knowledge of the discipline or specialty applied to the teaching-learning environment and patient care, the development of innovative teaching and evaluation methods, and program development and learning outcome evaluation.

The scholarship of application encompasses all aspects of the delivery of nursing care that impact or solve health care problems, which takes the form of the development of clinical knowledge, application of the process of evidence-based practice, and promotion of testing of clinical knowledge and new practice strategies.

The scholarship of integration focuses on synthesis of information across disciplines, across topics within a discipline, or across time, and also contributes to interpreting existing work to bring forth new patterns, relationships, and insights to extend original ideas and research.

Promotion to the Level of Associate Professor with Tenure

Candidates for tenure and promotion in the College of Nursing must demonstrate scholarly performance in research and scholarship in their specialized area of expertise and in their teaching, and be proficient in service.

Research and Scholarship

Research and scholarship are the most substantive achievements by which the candidate is evaluated for tenure and promotion. The faculty member must demonstrate proficiency in their area of research and scholarship. In nursing, this means the candidate has an identifiable program of research. The quality and extent of research and scholarship are evaluated as to their contribution to nursing’s body of knowledge including their scientific impact.

Research and scholarship are measured (peer-reviewed) by evaluation from established experts in the related field of study and by evaluation from colleagues (associate and full professor) in the College of Nursing. Research and scholarship are measured by the following, listed in order of importance: 

Teaching

Teaching is an integral part of a faculty member’s responsibilities at the College of Nursing. The faculty member must be an effective teacher who increases students’ competence to use and develop ideas, methods, and skills. The quality of teaching performance in both classroom and online environments is measured by the following, listed in order of importance:  

Service

Participation in service is a faculty member’s responsibility at the College of Nursing. The faculty member is expected to participate in committee work. Involvement in service is measured by all of the following:

Promotion to the Level of Professor with Tenure

Advancement to the rank of professor should be based on significant accomplishments and professional statue; given the quality of the College is to a great extent a reflection of the quality of its professors. Candidates eligible for advancement to professor must have significant contributions as scholars and teachers and generally must have made service contributions that are qualitatively and quantitatively superior to those required for promotion to associate professor.

Research and Scholarship

The candidate must be a recognized authority in a particular research specialty as indicated by the high quality and impact of the individual’s work. Research and scholarship are measured by the number and quality of publications in refereed literature, the level of citation of the individual’s work, by the esteem in which the candidate is held by colleagues (as illustrated by the following examples: invitations to lecture, chairing meetings, participating in grant review boards or editorial boards, election to fellowship in learned societies), and by the success of the candidate in attracting external support for their research from federal or state agencies, foundations, or from industry. While a significant scholarly output is naturally expected, quantity is far less important than the total scientific impact of the candidate’s publications.

Teaching

Excellence in teaching is measured by teaching awards, authorship of widely adopted texts, authorship of influential articles pertaining to education, lecture invitations, invitations to visit major universities as a visiting professor, selection for editorship of recognized educational journals or text books, and implementation of major curricular innovations. This must be in addition to the more usual type of evidence provided for quality of teaching ability (student course and teaching evaluations, teaching evaluations by colleagues).

Service

Accomplishments in service activities should reflect a high level of performance. This is measured by election or appointment to a substantial office or leadership position in professional societies, fellowships, participation in professional review groups and panels, national or international collaborative research partnerships, leadership within the University, and recognized professional service at the St. Louis metropolitan and national level. International service activities, although not required, are encouraged.

Approved 12/14/2012

Teaching Track Appointment, Reappointment and Promotion Guidelines

Teaching

Teaching is an integral part of a faculty member’s responsibilities at the College of Nursing. The faculty member must be an effective teacher who increases students’ competence to use and develop ideas, methods, and skills. The quality of teaching performance in both classroom and online environments is measured by the following, listed in order of importance:

Service

Participation in service is a faculty member’s responsibility at the College of Nursing. The faculty member is expected to participate in committee work. Involvement in service is measured by all of the following:

Promotion to the Level of Professor with Tenure

Advancement to the rank of professor should be based on significant accomplishments and professional statue; given the quality of the College is to a great extent a reflection of the quality of its professors. Candidates eligible for advancement to professor must have significant contributions as scholars and teachers and generally must have made service contributions that are qualitatively and quantitatively superior to those required for promotion to associate professor.

Research and Scholarship

The candidate must be a recognized authority in a particular research specialty as indicated by the high quality and impact of the individual’s work. Research and scholarship are measured by the number and quality of publications in refereed literature, the level of citation of the individual’s work, by the esteem in which the candidate is held by colleagues (as illustrated by the following examples: invitations to lecture, chairing meetings, participating in grant review boards or editorial boards, election to fellowship in learned societies), and by the success of the candidate in attracting external support for their research from federal or state agencies, foundations, or from industry. While a significant scholarly output is naturally expected, quantity is far less important than the total scientific impact of the candidate’s publications.

Teaching

Excellence in teaching is measured by teaching awards, authorship of widely adopted texts, authorship of influential articles pertaining to education, lecture invitations, invitations to visit major universities as a visiting professor, selection for editorship of recognized educational journals or text books, and implementation of major curricular innovations. This must be in addition to the more usual type of evidence provided for quality of teaching ability (student course and teaching evaluations, teaching evaluations by colleagues).

Service

Accomplishments in service activities should reflect a high level of performance. This is measured by election or appointment to a substantial office or leadership position in professional societies, fellowships, participation in professional review groups and panels, national or international collaborative research partnerships, leadership within the University, and recognized professional service at the St. Louis metropolitan and national level. International service activities, although not required, are encouraged.

Approved 2/1/2013