NE's and job security?

Whispera, MSN, RN · Feb 1, 2011

I have talked about jobs to 5 different schools in my state. All of them have full time faculty whose jobs seem pretty secure. They are having to adapt their courses, however, so they can be offered online as well as in-person. Besides the full time faculty, it seems most faculty members are part time or adjunct. They teach as they are needed and if they aren't needed one semester, they don't have a job. Full time faculty members fill in the needs until there aren't any more of them to fill the needs. Then part time are used. I believe there are more adjunct faculty members than full time, by a longshot.

Full time get paid alot more for hours worked. LOTS more. They also get benefits while adjunct get no benefits. I don't think you could depend on adjunct teaching for an income. It's just too low-paying and unpredictable.

elkpark · Feb 1, 2011

Be careful of what "everyone knows."

Like clinical nursing jobs, a nursing educator "shortage" isn't necessarily what it appears to be. While plenty of people have been writing and talking about a huge "shortage" of nursing instructors in terms of there not being enough opportunity for all of the people who want to go into nursing being able to get into nursing school, that's not the same thing as schools of nursing looking to hire additional faculty. There are only a few schools in my state that have any faculty openings at any given time -- and some of those openings are part-time, no benefits (as Whispera notes, the trend across the board in academia is to use adjunct instructors -- no job security, low pay for the workload for the money, no benefits).

I recently "shopped around" for nursing faculty positions in my specialty around the entire country, for a couple years -- and finally gave up looking, because there just weren't many jobs (for MSN-prepared people, that is), and the jobs there were didn't sound like anything I'd want (certainly not worth relocating to another state for). :rolleyes:

I would never discourage anyone from going into nursing education, but I certainly would not do it because I expected better pay or job security.

jmqphd · Feb 11, 2011

Brick and mortar schools are necessary for entry level (ADN) programs. At least in our state, you cannot qualify to sit for the NCLEX with some kind of on-line or mail-order nursing degree. I am not sure that NLN would accredit a school that tried to go "on the cheap" and not have a core cadre of full time faculty. I don't know if NLNAC scrutinizes schools as closely for re-accreditation as they do for initial approval so maybe after schools get accreditation they can get rid of their full-timers and fill in with "assistant" instructors, etc.

We just got accredited and we only use part time faculty when our classes are large and we need additional clinical instructors. But the curriculum is taught largely by full-time faculty.

Having said all that, I am not sure there is such a thing as job security in academia. "Institutional loyalty" is often a one-way street.

VickyRN, MSN, DNP, RN · Feb 11, 2011

Be careful of what "everyone knows."
Like clinical nursing jobs, a nursing educator "shortage" isn't necessarily what it appears to be. While plenty of people have been writing and talking about a huge "shortage" of nursing instructors in terms of there not being enough opportunity for all of the people who want to go into nursing being able to get into nursing school, that's not the same thing as schools of nursing looking to hire additional faculty. There are only a few schools in my state that have any faculty openings at any given time -- and some of those openings are part-time, no benefits (as Whispera notes, the trend across the board in academia is to use adjunct instructors -- no job security, low pay for the workload for the money, no benefits).
I recently "shopped around" for nursing faculty positions in my specialty around the entire country, for a couple years -- and finally gave up looking, because there just weren't many jobs (for MSN-prepared people, that is), and the jobs there were didn't sound like anything I'd want (certainly not worth relocating to another state for).
I would never discourage anyone from going into nursing education, but I certainly would not do it because I expected better pay or job security.

North Carolina is facing a near 3.8 billion dollar budget shortfall. Since our state must balance its budget (unlike the federal government :rolleyes: ), there is now a hiring freeze in all state institutions, including the UNC university nursing baccalaureate programs and the community college ADN programs. So, state budgets and hiring freezes must also be taken into account. A program may desperately need more faculty, but just cannot hire them due to economic reasons beyond their control. It is not a good time to be a state employee. We have had no raises for nearly 4 years, faculty workloads are increasing, and there are new threats of laying off faculty :eek: However, I do love my nurse faculty job and am very grateful to have a job in this economy. :nurse:

FreudianSlip · Feb 16, 2011

How does the saying go..."It's a great job if you can find it"?

I've only been an educator for a couple of years now, but in my opinion it's been very rewarding (personally not financially). It seems jobs are scarce, the workload is high and the pay is...ok. For the education required, the pay is not great, but it's alot better than being a LMSW!

As far as the shortage, yes, there is a great shortage of educators...but once again that doesn't necessarily translate to increased hiring. In fact, in the midwest, we have seen institutions cutting back on their faculty positions due to budgetary concerns. The online thing plays a part, I'm sure with RN to BSN programs..but I haven't seen that first hand since I teach at an ADN program, which requires (of course) physical teaching of skills and lots of clinical hours.