The concept of faculty or academic nursing practice has long been embraced by Yale University School of Nursing (YSN) as a mechanism for integrating practice, which is so key to nursing as an applied profession, with the educational, research, and policy activities within the school. Historically, YSN faculty have believed that nursing research should be concentrated in clinical practice, and indeed, it is the expectation at YSN that all faculty engage in practice.

The definition of faculty practice is fairly broad, and it may include direct modalities of patient care (such as providing interventions or services for individuals, families, groups, communities, and systems) as well as the more indirect modalities of continuing education, mentoring, and consultation. Overall, any faculty practice should be in service to the school in that it should strengthen clinical scholarship and improve the education of future advanced practice nurses.

Of the various models of faculty practice, the two that are most utilized at YSN are the collaboration or joint appointment model and the private practice model. Within the joint appointment model, approximately 18 YSN faculty hold academic positions as well as clinical appointments at collaborating agencies. These effective contractual arrangements provide faculty access to patient populations for clinical experiences as well as for student education and clinical research. As part of a private practice model, a number of faculty bill directly for their clinical services, especially in labor and delivery settings as well as a number of specialty care sites.

The breadth and depth of clinical activities among YSN faculty are remarkable. Clinical practice settings vary from numerous primary care sites to acute, specialty, and chronic illness care units in which a full range of nursing care approaches are utilized. In the following pages, we are pleased to showcase, in addition to the student-run HAVEN Free Clinic, several of our faculty who have well-established clinical practices in several areas: children's environmental health, nurse-midwifery care, and adult acute care.

The nursing practice in which our faculty engage clearly provides the umbrella for the educational, scholarly, and policy activities that are key components of academic nursing. Moreover, it is in large part because of our faculty practice that YSN is able to meet its mission-stated goal: better health care for all people.

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