231chapter NINE
Refl ective Response 3
Lydia D. Rotondo
In Chapter 9, the authors frame the discussion of the clinical scholar role in doctoral
advanced nursing practice in the context of the external forces that are driving evidence-
based responses to improve the delivery and outcomes of care and an evolving view of
how Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)- prepared nurses can lead evidence- based prac-
tice (EBP) efforts. It has been well established that the reinvigorated efforts to launch a
practice doctorate in nursing nearly 15 years ago were significantly influenced by the
increasing complexity of the health care environment, clear evidence that the status quo
in health care was no longer sustainable, and a strong sense that nurses could more fully
leverage their clinical expertise and disciplinary perspective to accelerate health care
transformation (American Association of Colleges of Nursing [AACN], 2006). Ten years
after the publication of The Essentials of Doctoral Education for Advanced Nursing Practice ,
however, the nascent role of the DNP scholar continues to hold considerable unrealized
potential. While the demand for scholarly output related to outcomes of DNP prac-
tice has dominated professional discourse, the equally compelling need for nurses with
practice doctorates to explore the theoretical knowledge embedded in practice remains
largely unaddressed.
The authors emphasize that increasingly, the generation and utilization of valid
evidence in practice will be the cornerstone of transformational care that is patient-
centered, high quality, and cost- effective. In this changing health care milieu, the term
clinical scholarship has become synonymous with a form of practice inquiry that seeks
opportunities to improve care, develops solutions to clinical problems, generates new
understandings from clinical practice, and identifies new areas of practice inquiry
(AACN, 2006, 2015). As the authors emphasize, clinical scholarship is inextricably
enmeshed in clinical practice and they call on DNP- prepared nurses to provide leader-
ship in driving clinical excellence and informing health care policy.
Gonzalez and Esperat’s in- depth discussion of the definition of clinical scholar-
ship reflects the pluralistic nature of nursing knowledge. Building on Nightingale’s
empirical work during the Crimean War, the authors provide an overview of the con-
tributions of leading nurse scholars in recent decades that also recognize personal and
experiential sources. In addition, the authors emphasize the fundamental connection
between the discovery and application of knowledge that is crucial for practice disci-
plines. Their inclusion of Boyer’s (1990) seminal work challenging traditional ortho-
doxy of knowledge development affirms the scholarly contributions of DNP practice