This paper examines the nursing faculty shortage in the United States, situating it within the broader context of a projected national nursing shortage. Drawing on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, and multiple scholars, the paper identifies key causes: an aging faculty workforce nearing retirement, non-competitive academic salaries compared to clinical and other academic disciplines, and an insufficient pool of master's- and doctoral-prepared nurses entering teaching careers. The paper also considers recruitment strategies targeting younger registered nurses and evaluates policy interventions such as the Nurse Reinvestment Act of 2002, ultimately arguing that urgent, coordinated action is needed to prevent a cascading crisis in healthcare.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that in 2006, the 2.5 million registered nurse positions in the United States constituted the largest healthcare occupation in the country. Approximately 59 percent of these nurses worked in hospitals, while the remaining 41 percent were distributed across physicians' offices, home health care, outpatient care, government and social assistance agencies, and educational services.
The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN, 2009) reported that "hospitals, long-term care facilities, and other ambulatory care facilities added 27,000 new jobs in February 2009 when 681,000 other jobs were eliminated nationwide." Despite this growth, experts continued to forecast a shortage in the nursing profession, projecting "a need for more than one million nurses by 2016" (AACN, 2009).
The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (2009) further noted that "2007 and 2008 RN vacancy reports translate into an 8.1 percent vacancy rate," with a "growing RN demand of 2 to 3 percent every year until 2025." The Bureau of Labor Statistics explained that "employers in some parts of the country and in certain employment settings report difficulty in attracting and retaining an adequate number of RNs, primarily because of an aging RN workforce and a lack of younger workers to fill positions."
If the nursing population is at a stage where most workers are expected to retire soon, and the existing workforce is insufficient to fill the resulting vacancies, an imbalance is inevitable — one that could seriously affect the health of the nation and ultimately jeopardize economic productivity. To address this issue, concerned groups have already examined the matter and recognized the need to increase the influx of nursing candidates and to prepare existing nurses to assume the role of nurse educator.
Linda Allen noted the passage of the Nurse Reinvestment Act of 2002, which was designed "to provide loan forgiveness for nurses who obtain advanced degrees and go on to teach as nursing faculty." She also described strategies to attract more applicants, including "public relations campaigns, loan forgiveness programs, educational recruitment, nursing consortiums, and a focus on better working conditions."
Despite these efforts, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that, while "enrollments in nursing programs at all levels have increased more rapidly in the past few years," many qualified applicants were being turned away because of a shortage of nursing faculty. This shortage, according to Karl Yordy, "is a critical problem that directly affects the nation's nurse shortage, which is projected to worsen in future years."
Why is the nation experiencing a nursing faculty shortage? If registered nurses constitute the largest portion of healthcare providers in the country, why is there a shortage within nursing education specifically?
Linda Allen identified several contributing factors: the increased age of current faculty and the declining number of years remaining for them to teach; the expected wave of retirements; non-competitive compensation; and an insufficient number of master's- and doctoral-prepared nurses qualified to fill nurse educator positions.
On the salaries offered to nursing faculty, Karl Yordy noted that "academic salaries, especially at public educational institutions that prepare the majority of nurses, are not as competitive as they ought to be." This was further elaborated by Susan Reinhard et al., who observed that "there is a substantial salary disparity between nursing academic positions and other service disciplines." Specifically, they found that "the median 12-month salary for a doctoral-prepared associate professor of nursing ($74,556) is less than the base salary of an associate degree nurse with two to five years of experience serving as a head nurse ($92,197)."
Reinhard et al. further noted that nursing faculty salaries also lag behind those of other academic disciplines: "an average salary for a postsecondary law faculty is $95,740, while an average salary for a postsecondary economics faculty is $75,190."
This comparison of compensation between nursing faculty and those in other settings and disciplines clearly does little to attract nurses into a teaching career. Instead, it may lead nurses to prioritize their economic stability and only consider sharing their expertise later, once they are more financially secure.
Allen explained that the average age of a nursing faculty member is 51.5, and Yordy provided that the average age of retirement is 62.5. This means a faculty member may have roughly ten years of service remaining — a reasonable period on its own, but deeply problematic if large cohorts of similarly aged faculty members retire simultaneously, producing a sudden and sharp decline in the number of available nurse educators.
"Older faculty nearing simultaneous retirement"
"Faculty shortage limits nursing school admissions"
"Strategies to attract novice nurses to teaching"
The nursing profession is a vital sector in the country. Aside from providing jobs, it more importantly helps the nation maintain good health. If the shortage within its most critical support industry — nursing education — is not addressed, a domino effect may occur that will endanger not just the profession but the broader public as well.
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