J.R. Meadows and Dr. Barbara Mandleco, Nursing
A severe nursing shortage has been growing across the United States over the past six years and the outlook on immediate signs of recovery is bleak. It has become an increasing worry to the federal and state governments, nurses, health-care providers and hospitals, current nursing students, and nursing schools. Despite efforts, the need for nurses continues to rise, tabulating to 75% of all hospital personnel vacancies. Nursing schools and colleges are faced with the dilemma of how to produce more nursing faculty while health-care providers are making decisions on how to recruit more nurses to their institutions.
One factor contributing to the nursing shortage is the number of qualified nursing faculty. A shortage in faculty translates directly into a shortage of nurses. A national study by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing showed nursing schools turned away 5,823 qualified applicants in 2001 and identified 38.8% of the reasons as being related to the faculty shortage.1
This project sought to obtain perspectives from Utah’s nursing school faculty about how they feel the nursing faculty shortage affects the overall nursing shortage, what they feel are the major contributors to the dilemma, and what they believe are possible methods for resolving the problem. To obtain these views, surveys were distributed to the nursing faculty at five nursing schools in Utah and interview responses were obtained from their deans/directors. Of the 198 surveys distributed, 53% were returned. The respondents were 88.8% female and 8.2% male. Collectively, 94% responded they believe there is a statewide nursing faculty shortage.
The most common jobs of those employed outside the nursing school are: nurse practitioner, acute care practitioner, nurse anesthetist, certified nurse midwife, staff nurse, and registered nurse in the areas of emergency, pediatrics, family practice, and primary care.
The top three contributors to the nursing faculty shortage as listed by the faculty were:
1. Current salary
2. Higher compensation in clinical settings
3. More opportunities and appeal to work in other settings
Undesirable portrayal of the nursing profession and the level of school recruitment for faculty were listed as factors that do not contribute to the nursing faculty shortage.
The top three factors that influenced the current faculty to teach at their institutions were:
1. The institution’s nursing program
2. The University/College reputation
3. The living conditions and surrounding area of the University/College
The most effective methods to retain current faculty were listed as:
1. Increasing faculty salaries
2. Improving faculty benefits (retirement, health, and faculty development)
Of the faculty involved in the study, 37% said they did not feel the effects of the nursing faculty shortage at their particular institutions. They were asked to list what they believed to be the major factors that limit their institutions from enrolling and graduating more nursing students. The top two responses were: 1. The lack of clinical sites for nursing rotations and clinical training, and, 2. The lack of funding to expand the nursing program.
The nursing school deans/directors agreed that the major contributor to the faculty shortage in Utah was: the lack of funding to be able to increase faculty salaries and hire new faculty. One school listed unqualified faculty applicants as a contributor to the shortage and another listed the inability to increase scholarly support for current faculty. The most common methods listed by the deans/directors for retaining current faculty were: 1. Increasing nursing faculty salaries and, 2. Allowing financial support and time for faculty development such as continuing education for Masters and Ph.D. education, academic research, and publishing.
The nursing faculty were asked to list any specific measures being taken by their schools to ease the nursing faculty shortage. Responses common to all five schools were:
1. Trying to increase recruitment
2. Hiring more part time and adjunct faculty from clinical settings
3. Offering financial assistance to the faculty for advanced education.
The faculty at three of the schools described the higher education financial assistance and time off as being minimal and that pursuing an advanced degree is difficult given the demanding work load as a faculty member. Other actions listed by two or fewer school faculty were: encouraging students to pursue advanced education, job sharing and flextime opportunities, and decreasing the nursing curriculum length.
This study showed common trends of increasing funding for salaries and for hiring new faculty. Although increasing salary was listed as the best recruiter and retention factor, the faculty were initially most satisfied with their positions because of the program and reputation of the schools where they teach. Resolving the nursing faculty shortage may not be viewed as an imminent need, for most institutions do not have problems filling the faculty vacancies that arise each year. Yet by increasing the faculty at each institution, more nursing students could be graduated. As the nursing shortage continues to worsen, some alternatives exist to help ease it, but there does not seem to be any factor that could better increase the number of nurses than increasing the number of faculty to train them. The results of this study will be shared with each nursing school and contribute to the overall information about the nursing shortage.
- AACN. “Enrollment and Graduations in Baccalaureate and Graduate Programs in Nursing,” 2000-2001. <http://www.aacn.nche.edu>