Editorial: Professors as leaders
One of us (RW) was asked recently to address the role of professors as leaders in the 21st century at an international nursing education conference in Hong Kong and this has stimulated us to think further on this issue. We have addressed the issue of the professoriate in nursing before (Watson & Thompson 2004, Thompson & Watson 2006) and this has drawn criticism and stimulated debate (Rolfe 2007). However, we have largely bemoaned the state of the nursing professoriate, especially in the UK, in terms of the ease with which the title is sometimes obtained and the activities that are purportedly promoted within the role. Nevertheless, we were glad to find some support for our views from an august UK body, the National Conference of University Professors (NCUP) which mentioned in their 1996 Policy Document number 6 entitled The case for universities (http://www.rdg.ac.uk/ ncup/poldocs/doc2.htm accessed 23 November 2007): ...Universities must always be on guard for the maintenance of their standards. For this reason, we question the incipient practice of awarding professorial and other academic titles to those who have not demonstrated academic leadership in a chosen field, to be found in some universities.
We take no comfort from the fact that, in relation to other subjects, we are not alone. However, we take great comfort from the fact that we are not alone in expressing concern. We do not want to turn this editorial into another negative assessment of the worth of individual professors but it is clear that the issue has arisen, the role of professors has been questioned across subjects
and the NCUP has addressed this comprehensively. We believe that professors of nursing should be appointed and subsequently judged in the same way as other professors and the criteria set out by the NCUP are ideal in this regard. We paraphrase below, these criteria from their 1991 Policy Document number 1 entitled The role of the professoriate (http://www.rdg.ac.uk/ ncup/poldocs/doc2.htm accessed 23 November 2007): 1 Established and Personal Chairs: leadership of their subject and international and, at least, national recognition in their field of scholarship. 2 Academic Standing: outstanding authority in their field, attraction of high-calibre staff and academic visitors, including overseas visitors. 3 Research and Scholarship: maintain individual authoritative industry in scholarship and research, for example, encourage other staff to engage in original research. 4 Teaching: high quality teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. 5 Acquisition of Resources: internally and externally support scholarly activity. 6 Powers of Communication: range of skills in spoken and written communication to express views cogently and defend their judgements effectively. 7 Services to the Wider University Community: vital contribution to be made to the esprit de corps of the academic body. 8 Services Outside the University: service on local and national boards, consultancy work for public bodies and availability for special comment in the media.
2008 The Authors. Journal compilation 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2702.2007.02248.x
It can be seen from the above that the professorial role is wide and varied. Nevertheless, the above can be neatly summarized under: • excellence; • international work; • profile.
Leadership If the issue of leadership is to be addressed then it is clear that it is leadership in the field of scholarship. It should be noted that administration and management are not mentioned by the NCUP and, while these are likely to be within the role of many professors and many professors will be competent in both, the issue of leadership is distinct. Of course, the role, within academe, of professors is not unique to them. All academics must address some or all of the criteria outlined above. Indeed, many non-professorial colleagues are better managers and administrators than some professorial colleagues. Witness the rise of senior managers in nursing schools and faculties, who are not professors, especially in the UK. While continuing to bemoan professors without publications, we also continue to question the rise of ‘deans without doctorates’ as many are managing programmes including doctoral level study. While we cannot expect every nursing academic to be well versed in the range of clinical specialties, we should expect them to be working at the appropriate level of scholarship as those they are managing and often making executive decisions. What is possibly unique about the professorial role, in the terms outlined by the NCUP, is that a professor should be demonstrating full range of skills and this takes time, experience and opportunity.
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Universities It is difficult to address the role of professors without also addressing the role of universities and, once again, we find that the NCUP has ‘got there before us’. We have addressed the role of universities in the preparation of nurses (Watson & Thompson 2004, 2005) and our conclusions are that, if university level education is required for other professionals then it is also required for nurses. Moreover, we do not advocate an attenuated level of university education for nurses, we believe that the Newmanesque concept of education being an end in itself (Thompson & Watson 2005) is good enough for nurses and firmly believe that the development of consciousness, as Gordon Graham (2002) put it, is a sufficient justification for university education per se and university education for nurses. University education is not just about training, and the distinction between training and education is becoming blurred (Maskell & Robinson 2002) especially in nursing and nowhere more blatantly than in the UK. However, we believe that the development of a sense of accountability, in the Socratic sense, is essential for
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nurses and that there are certain inherent values that universities promote that are perfectly compatible with university level education for nurses. If a proper university level education is not being offered to nurses – and we are sad to report that it is not in the UK (Shields & Watson 2007) – then nurses should be educated elsewhere (Watson & Thompson 2004). Therefore, in relation to all of the above, the role of the professor of nursing as a leader is to promote scholarship at all levels of their activity and to lead colleagues and the profession, for example, within the academic framework that is unique to universities. Turning again to the NCUP, we agree with their statement (http://www.rdg. ac.uk/ncup/poldocs/doc2.htm accessed 23 November 2007) that professors are ‘the custodians of the values of University education.’ This alone, in our opinion, justifies the role of professor (of nursing) as leaders in the 21st century. Roger Watson Professor of Nursing The University of Sheffield, UK E-mail:
[email protected]
David R Thompson Professor of Cardiovascular Nursing The University of Leicester, UK
References Graham G (2002) Universities: The Recovery of an Idea. Imprint Academics, Charlottesville, VA. Maskell D & Robinson I (2002) The New Idea of a University. Imprint Academics, Charlottesville, VA. Rolfe R (2007) Nursing scholarship and the asymmetrical professor. Nurse Education in Practice 7, 123–127. Shields L & Watson R (2007) The demise of nursing in the United Kingdom: a warning for medicine. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 100, 70–74. Thompson DR & Watson R (2005) All bathwater and no baby: revisiting a national curriculum and state examination for nursing? Nurse Education Today 25, 165–166. Thompson DR & Watson R (2006) Professors of nursing: what do they profess? Nurse Education in Practice 6, 123–126. Watson R & Thompson DR (2004) The Trojan Horse of nurse education. Nurse Education Today 24, 73–75. Watson R & Thompson DR (2005) The state of nursing in the United Kingdom. Journal of Clinical Nursing 14, 1039.
2008 The Authors. Journal compilation 2008 Blackwell Publishing Ltd
