AACN Essentials Domain 1: Knowledge for Nursing Practice
“Focuses on the discipline of nursing knowledge and other disciplinary knowledge.” (AACN, 2021, p. 27).
AACN Essentials Domain 4: Scholarship for Nursing Practice
“Focuses on scholarship; discovery, development, and dissemination of nursing knowledge related to health” (AACN, 2021, p. 37).
Domain 4: Essential Knowledge
To meet the objectives for Domain 4, knowledge is required in:
- Terminology: Scholarship, Research and Quality Improvement
- Statistical Measurements (Quantitative and Qualitative)
- Evaluation Methodology
- Translation of Evidence into Practice
- Ethical Issues
Domain 4: Leveling of the Essential Objectives
“4.1 Advance the scholarship of nursing.” |
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| Beginning of Program | Middle of Program | End of Program | |
| “4.1h Apply and critically evaluate advanced knowledge in a defined area of nursing practice.” | Define a research question, including population, independent and dependent variables, search strategy, inclusion and exclusion criteria, and database searched. Discuss reliability, validity, and trustworthiness of evidence, and analyze statistical data, key findings, limitations, and implications. |
Demonstrate a critical appraisal of published studies using a systematic approach. Integrate and synthesize literature in a focused area of research and articulate a synthesized critical appraisal of the literature. |
Conduct a needs assessment and develop a plan for implementing a change in practice.
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| “4.1i Engage in scholarship to advance health.” | Identify a clinical problem and population of impact. Discuss the causes, risk factors, consequences, cost impact, magnitude, and significant of the problem of interest to advanced psychiatric nursing practice. |
Summarize and synthesize a body of evidence, discuss gaps in knowledge and implications for the future. Determine future research needs in the defined area of interest. | Develop a scholarship proposal to address a defined problem in psychiatric nursing practice. |
| “4.1j Discern appropriate applications of quality improvement, research, and evaluation methodologies.” | Explore various evaluation models for performance improvement, quality improvement, and research designs. | Investigate a problem and identify contributing factors applying an evaluation model. | Formulate a plan for integration of evaluation methodologies in practice. |
| “4.1k Collaborate to advance one’s scholarship.” | Identify mentors, colleagues, and peers with similar scholarship interest. | Critique scholarship with mentor, colleagues, and peers’ guidance. | Design scholarship in collaboration with mentor, colleagues, and peers. |
| “4.1l Disseminate one’s scholarship to diverse audiences using a variety of approaches or modalities.” | Discuss opportunities for dissemination of scholarship. | Select publications for dissemination of scholarship. | Compose scholarship for dissemination. |
| “4.1m Advocate within the interprofessional team and with other stakeholders for the contributions of nursing scholarship.” |
Identify interprofessional team and stakeholders to advocate nursing scholarship. | Review evidence-based literature, synthesize key findings, identify limitations, and develop recommendations for nursing scholarship. | Formulate a plan to share with interprofessional team and stakeholders the contribution of nursing scholarship. |
“4.2 Integrate best evidence into nursing practice.” |
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| Beginning of Program | Middle of Program | End of Program | |
| “4.2f Use diverse sources of evidence to inform practice.” | Discuss sources of evidence to inform practice. | Differentiate applicable sources of evidence to inform practice. | Select a source of evidence to inform practice. |
| “4.2g Lead the translation of evidence into practice.” | Identify a practice change opportunity. | Review evidence-based literature related to practice change. | Build a written proposal to address practice change. |
| “4.2h Address opportunities for innovation and changes in practice.” | Identify examples of innovation in current practice setting. | Apply an evidence-based practice model to guide practice change | Construct a plan for innovation and a change in practice. |
| “4.2i Collaborate in the development of new/revised policy or regulation in the light of new evidence.” | Identify a policy concern in a clinical setting | Conduct a search of the evidence to support your ideas related to a change in policy. | Design a policy proposal based on your findings and create a plan for implementation. |
| “4.2j Articulate inconsistencies between practice policies and best evidence.” | Identify evidence-based clinical practice guidelines. | Compare evidence-based clinical practice guidelines to practice policies. | Recommend practice policy changes to align with evidence-based clinical practice guidelines. |
| “4.2k Evaluate outcomes and impact of new practices based on the evidence.” | Identify outcome management models. | Compare national quality measures for evaluation to clinical practice outcomes. | Formulate a plan to integrate national quality measures to improve clinical practice outcomes. |
“4.3 Promote the ethical conduct of scholarly activities.” |
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| Beginning of Program | Middle of Program | End of Program | |
| “4.3e Identify and mitigate potential risks and areas of ethical concern in the conduct of scholarly activities.” | Explain risks and ethical concerns related to conducting scholarly activities. | Outline strategies to mitigate risk and ethical concerns in performance of scholarly activities. | Critique plan for risks and ethical concerns for scholarly activities. |
| “4.3f Apply IRB guidelines throughout the scholarship process.” | Discuss purpose of Institutional Review Board (IRB). | Apply IRB guidelines to scholarly activities. | Design a scholarly activity addressing organization IRB guidelines. |
| “4.3g Ensure the protection of participants in the conduct of scholarship.” | Describe purpose of protection of participants when conducting scholarship activities. | Apply protection of participants to scholarship activities. | Plan a scholarly activity ensuring the protection of participants. |
| “4.3h Implement processes that support ethical conduct in practice and scholarship.” | Review principles of ethical conduct in practice and scholarship. | Evaluate ethical conduct in clinical practice and scholarship. | Formulate strategies to address ethical conduct in clinical practice and scholarship. |
| “4.31 Apply ethical principles to the dissemination of nursing scholarship.” | Define ethical principles of nursing scholarship. | Apply ethical principles which enhance the credibility and impact of nursing scholarship. | Critique nursing scholarship for adherence to ethical principles. |
Domain 4: Teaching/Learning Strategies
Examples of Classroom and Clinical/Practicum Strategies
Example 1: Discussion Boards
Description: Includes examples for discussion boards, IRB application, synthesis of articles, and dissemination of knowledge.
Directions: Read the article (Miller, L, Campo, J. V. (2021). Depression in adolescents. New England Journal of Medicine, 385(5),445-449.) and respond to the 3 questions below, as well as responding to colleagues posting with own thoughts, questions. Remember to review the grading rubric to address all components required.
Questions:
- Interpret the following statement into language parents would understand. “The lifetime prevalence of major depressive disorder among 13- to 18-year-olds is 11.0% in the United States, with a 12-month prevalence of 7.5%”.
- Select at least two studies presented in this article and describe how you would translate the research into your practice?
- You have studied caring in nursing, select a caring concept of Roach/Mayeroff that you believe would be essential to your practice when caring for adolescents with depression.
Roach, M.S. (2002). Caring the human mode of being: A blueprint for the health professionals (2nd ed.). CHA Press.
Mayeroff, M. (1971). On Caring. Harper & Row Publishers.
Example 2: IRB
- Complete IRB on proposed project/program.
- Have peer review according to IRB guidelines. Revise and have second peer review according to IRB guidelines.
- Discuss review with group of reviewers to understand their perspective of review and ways to improve clarity of project. Discuss gap in knowledge, improvement to NP practice, or improvement of individual outcomes.
Example 3: Synthesis of Articles
Directions: Synthesize three (3) articles related to similar topics, include references and copies of 3 articles.
- Introduction to synthesis of articles
- Describe similarities between articles
- Describes differences between articles
- Analyze implications of articles to APRN practice
Example 4: Dissemination of Knowledge
- Development of elevator speech/pitch in area of interest to disseminate scholarship to diverse audiences.
Domain 4: Resources
Articles/Textbooks
Melnyk, B. M., & Fineout-Overholt, E. (2019). Evidence-based practice in nursing & healthcare (4th ed.). Wolters Kluwer.
Melnyk, B. M., & Morrison-Beedy, D. M. (2019). Intervention research and evidence-based quality improvement (2nd ed.). Springer Publishing.
Polit, D. E., & Beck C. T. (2020) Nursing research: Generating and assessing evidence for nursing practice (11th ed.). Wolters Kluwer.
Waltz, C. F., Strickland, O. L., Lenz, E. R. (2017). Measurement in nursing and health research (5th ed.) Springer Publishing.
Websites
Americans Health Rankings
American Healthcare Association Quality & Safety
CDC Stacks Guidelines and Recommendations
CDC Publications
Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO) Nursing Best Practice Guidelines
Systematic Evidence Reviews and Clinical Practice Guidelines
