Running Head: FACULTY SHORTAGE

Faculty Shortage vs. No Faculty Shortage

Kayla Wallace
James Madison University

Abstract

FACULTY SHORTAGE
The purpose of this paper is to discuss the issue of having a shortage of academically qualified
instructors who are able to teach in nursing schools. There are thousands of nursing schools
across the country who are being operated with minimal staffing and this leads to not being able
to accept as many applicants. This in turn leads to a shortage in nursing. There will be
information provided about causes of shortages and how they can be resolved. In addition to
this, there will be information provided on the barriers for faculty not staying and going back to
different jobs. The workload of nursing faculty will also be looked at in comparison to other
faculty in different departments.
Keywords: Faculty shortage, nursing faculty, workload

Nursing shortages are found throughout the country, but what is the cause of this? Could
it be something simple like nurses are reaching retirement age or is it something more detailed

FACULTY SHORTAGE
like nursing faculty shortages? Nursing faculty shortages is an issue that is present in many
different schools, but what are the reasons for these shortages? Solving the nursing faculty
shortage will take behavior and priority changes by leaders from academia, health care,
government, and existing and potential new nursing faculty (Kowalski & Kelley, 2013, p.71).
These are just a few of the issues that could contribute to the shortage. Without figuring out
what the issue is that is causing there to be a faculty shortage, the nursing shortage will continue
to increase leading to an increase in patient workload, understaffed nursing facilities and
inadequate patient care.
Nursing faculty shortages are more common than you think, more than 56% of the 714
nursing schools that responded to a recent American Association of Colleges of Nursing survey
reported 1,236 full-time faculty vacancies for the 2014-15 academic year (Robeznieks, 2015,
p.9). 1236 full time positions are open from not having enough nursing faculty, so how many
nursing students are being turned away due to this? 78,000 applicants to bachelor and
advanced-degree nursing programs were turned away last year because there werent enough
faculty available to teach them (Robeznieks, 2015, p. 9). Since we now know how many
shortages there are, what are some of the reasons for them?
With there being nursing shortages throughout the US, it seems as though this may have
something to do with the nursing faculty shortage. In 2012, Staiger and colleagues estimate
120,000 RNs will exit the workforce by 2015, resulting in similar nursing labor force
demographics observed 10 years earlier (Snavely, 2016). If there is a reason that can attribute
to the nursing faculty shortage, then perhaps it is related to the number of RNs that are going to
be retiring or are just simply cutting back from full-time to part-time or per diem (PRN). If these
RNs continue to retire or change the number of hours that they are working, then the shortage is

FACULTY SHORTAGE
going to make it that much more difficult for students to be accepted into programs due to
limited staffing. Retirement cant be changed, but offering incentives to the full-time nurses that
love what they do, will possibly make them stay longer.
Another issue that is causing a nursing faculty shortage is the fact that there is no funding
for schools like it should be. Shrinking education resources in all states will ensure there will be
few if any "surplus states" where the "shortage states" can go prospecting to easily recruit their
much-needed faculty and nurses (Kowalski & Kelley, 2013, p.71). This is an issue with
government that can only be helped if we as a nation can get a leader that makes education a
priority. However, there are funds that are available, but most the time the problem is that the
requirements are strict and time consuming. If the nurses are already overwhelmed with not
having adequate staff, then this just adds more on their list of things to do.
Nursing faculty staff also have another major barrier that contributes to the shortage and
that would-be salary. Salary was identified as a major barrier for nursing faculty (Salvucci &
Lawless, 2016, p.66). The issue that many nurses are faced with is that major change in pay. A
lot of times, the pay is quite drastic going from working in a hospital setting to working at a
facility teaching. A lot of nurses who do teach, end up having to pick up a part time or per diem
job just to make close to the amount that they did before. A solution to this is possibly making
more programs available online so that more nursing students can be taught at the same time. By
doing that, it can increase the number of students accepted into nursing programs resulting in an
increase in pay for the faculty.
Another option to integrate is new technologies, such as simulation and distance
learning, which hold the promise of using faculty time more efficiently without compromising
student outcomes (Richardson & Goldsamt & Simmons & Gilmartin & Jeffries, 2014, p. 309).

FACULTY SHORTAGE
This option itself would be beneficial to many nursing programs, especially for Bachelors and
Masters degrees. With this option nursing students are still receiving a quality education, with a
smaller number of nursing faculty. Simulation labs are being used more than traditional hospital
settings because faculty can have more students at one time and they dont have to have the close
supervision like they would in a hospital setting.
Another issue is the age of some faculty when they start. Nurses who pursue academia
as a career often do so later in their careers. This does not lend itself to lengthy employment in an
academic setting (Nardi & Gyurko, 2013, p.318). This is an issue that there may not be an
immediate solution to because you dont want a brand-new nurse with no experience coming in
and attempting to educate other students on something that they have no experience with. There
should be recruitment efforts to bring in nurses who have at least ten years of experience because
they are not in the early stages of their career but are more seasoned than a brand-new nurse.
This is also something that could be looked at with each nurse individually. Although, some
nurses may not have been in practice as long as others, they may be well qualified to acquire a
position like this depending on what they have accomplished so far in their career.
If there were no shortage of nursing faculty, the nursing world could possibly run much
smoother. More nursing students could be accepted into programs, leading to more future
nurses. In turn, there would be less shortage in the work force, making the patient work load,
stress level and possibly turnover less common. With more nurses entering into the field, it
could also possibly generate more nursing faculty as some nurses do enjoy teaching others and
will eventually go into this either as adjunct faculty or a full-time faculty member. Trying to
figure out where to start to resolve this issue is an unfortunate problem that were faced with.

FACULTY SHORTAGE
In conclusion, there are many factors that affect faculty shortages. Some of these are
things that can be changed, for example opening more positions in programs by making online
learning an option for nursing students. There are also a lot of factors that cannot immediately
be changed or changed at all such as nurses reaching retirement age. It is going to take many
different people in the nursing profession to make these changes happen. It will not be
something that happens overnight. Universities and nursing schools all over are going to have to
work together to come up with a solution that will allow for an adequate amount of nursing
students to be accepted, so that the first step of the process can be underway. Hopefully, in years
to come very soon this shortage of faculty can be resolved.

References
Kowalski, K.& Kelley, B. (2013). What's the ROI for restoring the nursing faculty shortage?.

FACULTY SHORTAGE
Nursing Economics, 31 (3), 70-76.
Nardi, D.& Gyurko, C. (2013). The global nursing faculty shortage: status and solutions for
change. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 45(3), 317-326. doi: 10.1111/jnu.12030
Richardson, H.& Goldsamt, L. A. & Simmons, J. & Gilmartin, M. & Jeffries, P. R. (2014).
increasing faculty capacity: findings from an evaluation of simulation clinical teaching.
Nursing Education Perspectives, 35(5), 308-314. http://dx.doi.org/10.5480/14-1384
Robeznieks, A. (2015). Looming nursing shortage fueled by fewer faculty, training sites. Modern
Healthcare, 45(4), 9.
Salvucci, C., & Lawless, C. A. (2016). Nursing faculty diversity: barriers and perceptions on
recruitment, hiring and retention. Journal of Cultural Diversity, 23(2), 65-75.
Snavely, T. M. (2016). A brief economic analysis of the looming nursing shortage in the United
States. Nursing Economics, 34(2), 98-100.