The relevance of scholarship for nursing research and practice

For some, the coupling of the words `nursing' and`scholarship' would seem a contradiction in terms. How can an activity as practical and pragmatic as nursing,one which is rooted in the ordinariness of everyday living and which survives despite its very invisibility,claim to require an approach to knowledge generation as ancient and traditional as scholarship? Just as nursing is understood in practical terms, so stereotypes of scholarship reinforce its cloistered, detached image; the pursuit of self-disciplined learning and time-consuming thoroughness.