The Nature of Scholarship, a Career Legacy Map and Advanced Practice

This book, endorsed by the International Council of Nurses, explores a new conversation around scholarly talents for advanced candidate /nurse practitioners that comprise a variety of forms such as teaching, synthesis, discovery, engagement and application. It offers an expansive view of Boyer’s scholarship, with a call to action for advanced candidate /nurse practitioners to thoughtfully plan and map their personal goals and capabilities, that will mark them as professionals and future scholars needed in today’s challenging and changing professional workplace.   

Knowing how to apply the various forms of scholarship to problems of practice within one’s field of expertise and the implications of Boyer’s pillars of scholarship for advanced candidate / nurse practitioners are interweaved throughout this book. 

The volume discusses the science of career cartography, alongside legacy planning and career mapping. The toolkit illustrates a guide for advanced candidate /nurse practitioners to create their individual career legacy map and reflect on how they wish to contribute to the discipline of nursing, while working to improve the lives of others. 

This book serves as a catalyst for robust conversations among scholar practitioners on the very nature of clinical scholarship

Professor Laserina O'Connor, PhD, MSc, BNS, RANP, RNP, RNT, RM, RN, is a registered advanced nurse practitioner (RANP) and registered nurse prescriber (RNP) in pain management and a professor of clinical nursing at University College Dublin (UCD) School of Nursing Midwifery and Health Systems, Dublin, Ireland.  She studied Advanced Practice at the University of Pennsylvania, USA, and received her PhD from the European Institute Medical Health Sciences, University of Surrey, UK, and her master’s medical science degree and baccalaureate in nursing at University College Dublin. She is currently Director of the MSc Advanced Pain Management /Prescriptive Authority Program, Diploma Pain Management, a Professional Certificate in Pain Management, and a Diploma in Diabetes Care at University College Dublin.  Professor O'Connor is one of the co-directors representing nursing and midwifery at the UCD Centre for Translational Pain Research (CTPR). The UCD CTPR has strong multidisciplinary collaborative links with colleagues and other academic institutions in Ireland, England, Japan and the USA. She is Principal Investigator on a national funded project ‘An independent evaluation study to determine the impact of measuring nursing and midwifery-sensitive process metrics and indicators using Quality Care-Metrics’ across seven areas of practice: acute care, public health nursing, children’s, mental health, older person,  intellectual disability nursing and midwifery.  Professor O Connor is known for her work on pain and advanced practice nursing and has presented and published in the areas of pain, advanced practice nursing and other areas of clinical practice.