Knowledge Integration

What does integrating knowledge mean? How comprehensive can we be, realistically and ideally? When does interdisciplinary knowledge work best? These were just some of the questions explored during the Founders Day Symposium on January 18th at the School of Nursing auditorium, where President Amy Gutmann moderated a panel of four eminent Penn Integrates Knowledge (PIK) Professors. Their topic: Aristotle’s Brain: Integrating Knowledge in the 21st Century. Thank you, Dr. Neville Strumpf, for planning this on behalf of the University Senate.

The Symposium offered the kind of intellectual discourse that exists in an institution so rich in faculty knowledge and interdisciplinary expertise, and its goal of sparking a scholarly discussion on knowledge integration was well achieved. In the conversation of integration amongst disciplines, for example, I think it is important to remember that the integration of knowledge exists within disciplines, too.

We have so many examples of knowledge integration in our school as exemplified by our faculty teaching and research. Let me just share two, the scholarships of Penn Nursing professors Charlene Compher and Joseph Boullata. Dr. Compher, renowned for her research in parenteral and enteral feeding, and Dr. Boullata, a pharmacist and nutrition expert, have worked together to advance nursing science, most recently studying vitamin D absorption in patients receiving parenteral nutrition and working on strategies to enhance these very much needed nutrients. Together, they have used a different lens to tackle a much larger problem in health care and clinical guidelines.

Societal and health problems are always integrated, which is why there is a need for integrated knowledge. Still, there also exists a tension between knowing a discipline vertically and thoroughly and “knowing” what comes from many different disciplines. In other words, is it better to be a jack of all trades or a master of one? And in the nursing field, where the needs of specialization are evident in roles like nurse anesthetist and clinical nurse specialist, is the job market ready for integrated knowledge or integrated graduates?

These are issues that need to be addressed, and I encourage you, especially those of you unable to attend the Symposium, to challenge yourself by asking these very questions.