Faculty recruitment and retention is a top concern for nursing education leaders as institutions work to strengthen the pipeline of nurses entering the workforce. And a new survey from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) quantifies those concerns, finding that the percentage of open nursing faculty positions currently unfilled, known as the faculty vacancy rate, increased to 7.9%, up from 7.8% last year.
The survey also reports:
- The faculty vacancy rate in the US was highest in the West at (9.8%) and lowest in the Midwest (5.6%).
- 84% of all open positions require or prefer faculty hires to hold a terminal degree, creating additional hurdles to close vacancies since there is a limited pool of doctoral-prepared nurses.
- Noncompetitive salaries, lack of teaching experience among prospective candidates, and difficulty finding candidates with proper specialization expertise were identified as the primary obstacles in recruiting nursing faculty.
The growing nursing program faculty vacancy gap has a direct impact on the nationwide nursing workforce shortage. Schools without sufficient faculty often struggle with capacity, limiting the number of nursing graduates entering the workforce and placing additional burden on faculty workload.
To address this ongoing concern, the AACN notes several solutions, including increasing faculty salaries, tax incentives, preparing graduate students for teaching roles, tuition discounts, focusing on faculty mentoring, implementing ways to reduce burnout, and promoting professional development, among others. Nursing faculty are a key component of the healthcare workforce education system, and the Healthcare Workforce Coalition calls on lawmakers to support legislation empowering nursing schools to more efficiently hire and retain faculty.