The importance of clinical academic careers in nursing

Abstract

The decision of the Journal of Nursing Research to devote a special issue to the topic of clinical academic careers is a welcome indication, not only of the importance of this topic, but also of how widely its importance is now recognised. For the past decade I have been involved, in a variety of ways, in supporting the need for this kind of career development for nursing and the allied health professions. It is a great pleasure to see now that real changes are in sight. My own background is in social sciences, and apart from being the ViceChancellor of a University which incorporates a number of these professional disciplines, I have had no direct experience of health careers. So—why did I get involved? More generally, why have I felt it so important to work for change so that it becomes possible to sustain a clinical academic career, be it research oriented or a mixture of teaching and research? The most fundamental reason concerns the delivery of high-quality patient care and in particular the evidence base for this. Medical treatment and prevention of disease rightly claim a significant amount of public and charitable funds, because only on the basis of rigorously produced evidence can high-quality medicine be delivered. But medical scientists and doctors are not the sum total of the health care providers, and successful patient care depends on the work of other health professionals within the overall team. It follows that the treatment, care and preventative work for which they are responsible also needs to be underpinned by strong and rigorous evidence. Sadly, there is a huge mismatch with a much slimmer evidence base for the work of nurses and other health care professionals than for the medical dimension of health care teams. Therefore, it is essential that the research base for the work of health care professionals is enhanced significantly. This becomes even more important—and urgent— in the light of the aspirations of the health service in the UK to move to a much greater focus on prevention, on self-management in patient care, and on the management of chronic conditions in the community. Of course, nurses and health care practitioners have a vital role within acute services, which also needs to be underpinned with research. But, the further one moves away from acute services and into community based and preventative services, the more weight is put onto the work of these professionals to deliver the highest quality of health care. The research base needs to be enhanced significantly. So, who will undertake this vital work? It is true of course, that health care professionals themselves are not the only people who can do this. Indeed, as a sociologist by background, I am acutely Journal of Research in Nursing ©2009 SAGE PUBLICATIONS Los Angeles, London, New Delhi and Singapore VOL 14 (2) 103–105 DOI: 10.1177/ 1744987108101143 GU E S T E D I TOR I A L