Nursing Schools Brace For Faculty Shortage

Earlier this morning, National Public Radio's Morning Edition program discussed the looming faculty shortage facing nursing schools nationwide. The nurse faculty shortage issue was highlighted in the Institute of Medicine's report "The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health" and has been a major focus of the Campaign for Action and other organization's efforts to bolster nursing faculty numbers. With nearly 8% of all nursing school faculty positions remaining vacant, continued efforts are needed to ensure that there will be educators for tomorrow's nurses.

To listen to the story as heard on Morning Edition or read the transcript, click here.

RWJF Program Debuts Tool to Answer Questions about Nurse Faculty Members

How do nurse faculty members spend their time? How do they assess key aspects of their work-life? How do faculty at your school compare to those at similar schools around the country?

A new tool created by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Evaluating Innovations in Nursing Education (EIN) program can help you to answer these and many more questions about full-time nurse faculty in the U.S.

To see a brief demonstration and begin using the tool, click here.

With this web-based interactive tool, you can easily create customized views of data from the 2011 National Survey of Nurse Faculty, a study of a nationally representative sample of full-time faculty at prelicensure nursing programs. NuFAQs guides you in exploring over 60 characteristics of workload and attitudes toward work-life and seeing how they differ among faculty subgroups of interest to you.

Background: The National Survey of Nurse Faculty was conducted during the 2010-2011 academic year by the national program office of Evaluating Innovations in Nursing Education (EIN), at the Rutgers University Center for State Health Policy. The survey was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Results were compiled from responses from a nationally representative sample of all full-time nurse faculty members teaching in over 270 nursing programs that were selected to be representative of all pre-licensure ADN and BSN programs in the United States. Completed questionnaires were received from 3,120 faculty members, a response rate of 79% A copy of the survey questionnaire is posted on the web site for your use. Ask your colleagues to complete it, and you’ll be able to assess how their workload and attitudes toward work compare to faculty members similar to them throughout the country. 

 For questions and more details on the study design, contact the EIN National Program Office at: info@EvaluatingInnovationsInNursing.org.

Qualified Nursing Students Turned Away Due to Lack of Faculty

A recent report by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing has found that while nursing school enrollment increased by 5.1% in 2011, over 75,000 students were not accepted due to a lack of faculty and teaching sites. The the Institute of Medicine (IOM) report Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health, addressed this issue with their fifth recommendation that aims to increase the number of nurses with doctoral degrees by two-fold in order to boost the dwindling number of qualified nurse faculty.

Click here to read more about the nursing faculty shortage from the AACN.

Nursing Programs: Shortage of Qualified Faculty Burdens Eager Students

Over the weekend, Laurel Scott, of gosanangelo.com, discussed the ongoing issue of the lack of nurse faculty throughout the country. Ms. Scott reported on local issues within the state of Texas in regards to the lack of doctorally prepared instructors to train the next generation of nurses. With the baby boomer generation beginning to retire, it is imperative that a new breed of nurses be adequately trained and educated so that they may care for the growing elderly population in the United States.

Click here to read the full news article.