The multidimensional role of nursing faculty requires sustained engagement in scholarship of education, practice, and/or leadership, and for some faculty, research.1-3 Implicit in the role of nursing faculty are responsibilities to mentor other faculty, participate in professional collaboration, commit to a culture of lifelong learning, respect everyone's worldviews, demonstrate excellence in not only scholarship but other roles too, and maintain integrity in all interactions.1 Attaining scholarship requirements may be difficult due to teaching responsibilities, faculty attrition, and student enrollment. Sharing the values of respect, collegiality, professionalism, and support in the faculty role creates an organizational environment indicative of scholarly caring.2 This type of faculty milieu fosters the development of others and could likely encourage scholarship.2 In this article, we discuss how a peer support group improves the productivity of tenure and nontenure faculty in our school of nursing.
Background
Most nursing faculty with an academic appointment are required to engage in scholarly activities while maintaining their teaching and service responsibilities.4 Expectations for scholarship can place demands on faculty time necessary for engagement in scholarly activities and cause feelings of being overwhelmed, whether a new or an experienced faculty member. Faculty face barriers with scholarship productivity due to the unremitting nature of teaching, course coordination, and service workloads.5
Problem
Reported as the second-ranked concern among doctoral faculty nationally, nurses need institutional support to encourage scholarly productivity.5,6 Nursing faculty may need assistance in writing publications or other mentoring activities related to scholarship. Faculty who are in a supportive environment not only publish more but also obtain more grants and are promoted more quickly than nonmentored faculty.6
Nurse faculty have the potential to change faculty cultures toward scholarly caring, relationship building, and improved work environments.7 Heinrich and Oberleitner8 describe a professional development approach that engaged faculty in peer-mentorship. Over 3 years, the Teacher-Scholar Project offered faculty workshops, invited individuals to 1-to-1 writing consultations, and created writing groups resulting in increased scholarly productivity, job satisfaction, and professional fulfillment.8
At our school of nursing, faculty responded to Heinrich's7 call for administrators and faculty groups to converse about the topic of scholarly caring. We followed Heinrich's suggestion and invited all faculty to a 90 minute-retreat to have an open dialogue with the question: What would make you feel more supported as a scholar in our school?
Approach
Mutual respect and scholarly success served as the foundation for establishing and sustaining the Scholarship in Progress Peer Support (SIPPS) group.8 The institutional initiative was developed in February 2017 by faculty members who envisioned an encouraging environment for developing scholarship with peer support. Unlike many nurse faculty mentoring programs that provide support for research faculty, the SIPPS program strives to offer inclusive support to faculty with education and clinician roles.9
The Assistant Dean for Non-Tenure Track Faculty Affairs and Advancement and the Assistant Director of the Doctor of Nursing Practice Program championed the SIPPS group. The purpose of the SIPPS group is for faculty to benefit from feedback (constructive, caring, meaningful, and feed-forward) in discussion with a committed group of attentive and empathetic peers. The SIPPS group objectives are to (1) support a community of diverse scholars in advancing scholarship, (2) foster increased connections around common interests, and (3) capitalize on our collective expertise.
The SIPPS group meets monthly for 1 hour in a common room on campus. Faculty attendance is optional and based on availability. During the session, 1 to 2 faculty members present for 15 minutes a scholarly work or project (manuscript, presentation, quality improvement, or research) in progress. One unique aspect of this program includes the participant's ability to receive feedback on various aspects of scholarship aside from manuscript/grant preparation.10 Presentations include idea development, study/project design, practice for an upcoming presentation, and work in progress at varying stages, among other topics. Faculty presenters choose their preference for style and format of their presentation information. All presentation formats are welcomed, with or without media, such as a PowerPoint, handouts, posters, or informal discussion.
Balancing their roles as educators, practitioners, and researchers, faculty in attendance embrace and commit to sharing their expertise in support of their faculty peers. All are responsible for creating an environment of genuine caring about the presenter's scholarship. At the conclusion of the presentation, faculty peers and the presenter participate in an open exchange of questions, answers, and feedback.
Outcomes
The SIPPS group has met 10 times since its inception, with 15 presenters sharing their scholarly ideas or works. All faculty, regardless of rank or tenure/nontenure track, were invited to attend the SIPPS meetings. Participants ranged in rank from instructor to professor of nursing. Most of the participants were nontenure track faculty, with varying degrees of experience and topic expertise. Topics presented vary in development phase from initial ideas to completed work. Faculty presenters report making connections with other faculty with similar interests. Presenters have also received encouraging and positive feedback propelling their scholarly ideas forward for dissemination. Two national podium presentations, 5 peer-reviewed manuscripts, 2 manuscripts in review, 2 grants, 7 national poster presentations, 2 local poster presentations, and 1 patient pamphlet resulted from peer support at a SIPPS gathering. Improvements in areas of development, data collection strategies, project participant recruitment, and data analysis approaches have also occurred.
Faculty presenters and peers (n = 18) participated in a survey about their experience of attending a SIPPS meeting. All of the survey respondents either strongly agreed or agreed that they felt supported by peers, received peer feedback that encouraged them to pursue next steps in their scholarly endeavors, perceived the feedback they received as constructive and meaningful, and benefited from listening to the feedback given to the faculty presenters.
Scholarship in Progress Peer Support sessions continue to be integrated as a key feature of the faculty development strategic plan. The sessions, inclusive of all faculty, researchers, and clinician educators at every career stage and teaching at every program level, offer a welcoming, safe space to practice presentations, refine project ideas, and build a culture of collegial support for scholarship in all its forms. More recently, the SIPPS leadership group has sponsored informational sessions with our university liaisons on institutional review board applications for educational research, quality improvement, and evaluation projects and strategies for comprehensive literature searches to support scholarly work. Key indicators of successful outcomes related to faculty achievement, productivity, and culture will continue to be distilled into faculty development.
Conclusions
Heinrich7 challenged all nursing faculty to cultivate scholarly caring within their organizations. The SIPPS group fosters inclusive, intellectual enrichment, diversity, and professional development to support the organizational culture of wellness. This group is one example of how a collaborative effort to improve faculty culture and work environment can assist nurse faculty in their scholarship.
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