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Nursing Faculty Shortages

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Nursing Faculty Shortages

One cannot just become a Nurse. At a minimum, it requires a proper nursing education that

includes an intensive theoretical and practical classes, hands-on clinicals followed by a rigorous nursing

certification exam. This is only possible if the student and their educational institution has a sufficient

number of nursing faculties. Unfortunately, In the United States of America, educational institutions and

nursing sector has been suffering from nursing faculty shortages. As the present population ages and the

baby boomers retire, new nurses are required. If the nursing faculty is not enough, new nurses cannot

be trained and prepared to care for the aging populations. According to a study in 2016, the average age

of a nursing faculty with a PhD degree with ranks of professor, associate professor, and assistant

professor was in the range of 62.4 to 51.2 years. Similarly, the average age of a nursing faculty with a

master’s degree with ranks of professor, associate professor, and assistant professor was in the range of

55.5 to 50.6 years. (Fact sheet: Nursing Faculty Shortage 2019). Also, one-third of the current nursing

faculty workforce in bachelor’s and graduate programs are expected to retire by 2025 that leads the

problems for the new applicants and will contribute to the nursing shortage in clinical forces as well as in

schools and colleges (Fact sheet: Nursing Faculty Shortage 2019). There are lots of factors that has

contributed to the nursing faculty shortages like better benefits and compensation in a clinical setting

for nurses in comparison to the benefits and compensation that a nursing faculty will receive.

Furthermore, majority of students plan to become a nurse or choose a related healthcare field after

graduating from college which further worsens the shortage of nursing faculty (Fact sheet: Nursing

Faculty Shortage 2019).

Current Challenge

Low benefits and salary in an educator role

Majority of nurse faculties leave their current position because of benefit and compensation

concerns, availability of better professional and advancement opportunities, retirement, and other
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personal reasons (LH. Polili et al., 2017). As per the research article, many nurse faculties left or are

leaving their job because of lower workplace satisfaction and inaccuracy in institutional expectations for

success. It has become very difficult to find their substitutes as the employer also cannot provide

competitive benefits and compensation to the new faculty. According to the American Association of

Nurse Practitioners, the average salary of Nurse Practitioner was around $105,000 in 2017 and the

average salary of a nurse educator with a master’s degree was around $78,000 (Fact sheet: Nursing

Faculty Shortage 2019). Because of these benefits, students are more inclined to become a nurse or

choose a related field rather than becoming an educator. Fortunately, there is still a population with a

passion to educate future nurses and are willing to become nurse educators. However, the ratio of

people who want to become a nursing faculty instead of choosing a nursing career is not very promising

for the future outlook.

Difficulties in enduring and finance nurse faculty programs

A decrease in the number of nursing faculty can also impact the quality and quantity of nursing

education to future students which will, the shortage of nurses in statewide and nationwide. To be able

to ease the problem, proper funding and supports need to be established in the institution. Without

institutional funding, it will be difficult to hire a qualified faculty nurse. It is essential to provide attractive

benefits and salaries to hire qualified faculty members and keep them for the long term. Because of a

lack of funding, qualified educators will not be hired, and it will impact the nursing demands nationwide.

According to AACN in 2018, around 10,788 qualified applicants have turned away from the master’s

program and 2909 were turned away for the doctoral program because of a shortage of faculty and

clinical sites (Fact sheet: Nursing Faculty Shortage 2019). Like research and other clinical sites, there

should be proper funding to maintain the supply and demand of the burses and future nurse educators.

Retirement of aging current nurse faculty

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As the baby boomer population ages, the number of retainment of the nursing faculty and

nurses increases. It is a big concern as it will impact the future nursing workforce. To encounter the

current problem, schools and colleges are paying extra expenses for overtime, increasing workload in

current staff that leads to employee dissatisfaction, burnout, and high turnover rates. Because of high

retire faculty, lots of qualified students’ applications are being turned away, increased call size for the

single faculty, fewer graduates, and fewer nurses in the marketplace. In some cases nurse faculties even

want to get early retirement because of low non- competitive salaries, high cost for the advanced

degree, workload and burnouts, and new and variety of career choices in the nursing field. We cannot

do much for the aging population but to compensate the retired faculty, we can find a way to attract the

new generation to become nurse faculty and helps to prepare more nurses for the workforce.

Potential Solutions

Increase the Benefits for the current and future faculty

The main cause of the shortage is less salary and the increased workload. The problem can be

addressed by providing support and benefits for loan reimbursement for the faculty, proper use of a

mentor to improve faculty development, conduct survey to address the effectiveness and work

satisfaction, conduct the awareness among the public about the importance of nurse educator in the

contribution to prepare the future nurses in the workforce, and prepare the public to become nurse

educator (Evans, 2018). It is important to ensure that the faculty feel valued and recognized in addition

to promotion and benefits that will help to reduce burnout and can have more flexibility in the

schedules. It will help faculty to teach and work as an educator (Girod et al, 2017). This solution has

feasibility as funding to increase the benefits and salary can be obtained from the department or the

state as nurse faculty are an important aspect of the nursing field. Not just the educational institution

but also the state government, local hospitals, and community can be a part of this solution. If this
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problem is solved and many nurses are attracted to the teaching field then there won’t be a nursing

shortage in bedside, clinical aspects, and overall sectors.

Provide funding and budget

Medicine and academic environment are changing and evolving where an advanced degree is

required to meet the requirements. To meet the requirements, only higher education is not enough,

research activities are an essential part to enhance the skills. There is a competition in the research

activities and nursing education as a spot is very limited and costly (Daw, P., & Etta Mills, M. 2018). As

per research Maryland nursing program offered Nurse Support Program II (NSP II) where it addresses

the faculty shortages and it encourages New Nurse Faculty Fellowship (NNFF) program to recruit new

nurse faculty. This program is funded by a Maryland Health services Cost Commission (HSCRC) and the

annual percentage of Maryland hospitals’ patient’s revenue supports the funds (Daw, P., & Etta Mills, M.

2018). This program benefited Maryland to recruit, retain, and hire several new nurse faculties over 8

years (Daw, P., & Etta Mills, M. 2018). Funding and budget were provided properly by the third party

and that helped to support the new nursing students and upcoming nursing faculty to peruse the career

as an educator. If the proper funding and research center is provided to the faculty, they can conduct

research and help to enhance their knowledge and will feel noted and appreciated that will reduce the

burnout. This solution is a little bit tougher as it is hard to obtain lots of funds from different sectors. If

the local community, hospitals, schools and colleges, and government involve seriously to raise the

funds, then it can be doable. There won’t be a lot of challenges after implementing the solution as many

nurse faculty and students will benefit.

Prepare the new workforce of nurse faculty to take over retired faculty

As we know the majority of baby-boomers are retiring, and soon new nurse faculty need to be

recruited. To recruit the new faculty, first of all, there should be a database that includes

comprehensive, current, and accurate data for the number of retiring and about to retire in few years
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(Fact sheet: Nursing Faculty Shortage 2019). Then, a plan can be made to hire a qualified nurse faculty.

This database can be used to create a new open position for the new hire. To be a qualified nurse

educator, there is a minimal requirement of master or doctoral level education, if the fast track of the

education line BSN to DNP in nurse educator is provided there will be more nurse educator in the job

pool. This will help to a reduction in the workload in the current facility and baby-boomers can retire on

time (Kaskie, B. 2017). This solution is hard to obtain as it is hard to keep track of the number of hiring

and retiring faculty. University and schools need to provide accurate information to the state and the

nursing authorities to be a part of this solution. If this solution is implemented there will be benefits in

the nursing world as there will be lots of new nurses in the job pool and nursing shortage will be

reduced.

Associated Benefits

In the current scenario, nursing and faculty shortage is a prime issue. Because of this problem

the whole nation is suffering from nurse faculty and staff shortage. It is important to sustain and

stabilize current faculty working to avoid aggravating the current and future faculty shortage (Bittner &

Bechtel 2017). By addressing the current problem of faculty shortage, nursing staff in clinical settings,

nursing faculty, and students who are waiting to be accepted in the programs are most benefited. It is

because if the problems are addressed frequently, solutions will be presented also. In Maryland, funds

are raised and encourage New Nurse Faculty Fellowship (NNFF) program to recruit new nurse faculty

(Daw, P., & Etta Mills, M. 2018). Not only current nurse faculty but also future faculty and students will

get benefits.

Conclusion

The nursing faculty shortage is an immerging and prime issue. Many faculties leave the teaching because

of low benefits and salary as compared to other clinical facilities, lack of funding to enhance the learning

criteria, and retiring of the current nurse faculty. To solve this problem, some strategies like increasing
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salaries and benefits, providing funding and budget for the research and further education, and prepare

the new workforce to takeover retired faculty (Zimmermann, et al; 2020). These strategies are not

completely feasible to reduce the current shortage as it requires a lot of effort from the college,

universities, states, and government. However, if a nursing organization, community, Colleges and

universities, state, and government can reduce the shortage of faculty.

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References

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Looming Faculty Shortage. Nursing Education Perspectives, 38(4), 171-176.

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Daw, P., Mills, M. E., & Ibarra, O. (2018). Investing in the future of nurse faculty: A state-level program

valuation. Nursing Economics, 36(2), 59-82.

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