Background

Nurse scientists are highly sought after and find satisfaction in serving as members of interdisciplinary research teams. These teams also tend to be highly productive. However, nurse scientists in academia also have to reach certain productivity milestones to be promoted and receive tenure that may be incongruent with team science principles.

Purpose

This study therefore sought to examine whether APT documents in research intensive nursing schools incorporate team science principles.

Methods

Qualitatively analyzed the appointment, promotion and tenure documents of 18 U.S. based research intensive schools of nursing with over $2 million in NIH funding in fiscal year 2014.

Findings

The study found that only 8 of 18 documents included any reference to team science principles and even these mentions were largely negligible. There were few best practices to recommend across documents. By not recognizing team science within these documents, nursing risks marginalization within the larger scientific community by limiting mentorship and learning opportunities for early career nurse scientists.

Discussion

Schools of nursing should revisit their promotion and tenure criteria and include a greater commitment to encouragement of team science.