Endocrine Abstracts

Unlike many other academic disciplines nursing is a relative newcomer to higher education in many countries. Although baccalaureate level preparation has been available in various forms since 1920 the real momentum for graduate nursing at point of qualification accelerated in the 1980s and 1990s. The development of nurse graduate education has nevertheless brought the realisation of many long fought professional ambitions but also created an academic nursing workforce. This can feel to newly appointed academic staff more akin to a second career undertaken in a parallel universe; and a journey sometimes embarked upon ill-prepared. This presentation will seek to describe the modern University and differences between research intensive and teaching orientated institutions. This will serve as a backcloth to explain the challenges for new nursing academics delivering education to meet regulatory, professional and workforce requirements whilst carving their own research and scholarly aspirations. This will be contrasted with the development of clinical academic roles namely PhD prepared clinical leaders combine clinical leadership with active engagement in research and may hold joint or honorary positions in higher education institutions. Lastly strategies that can be employed to navigate a successful career in academia to better contribute to the future of nursing and future generations of nurses will be discussed.