Nurse Educators...it is time to speak out!

[kaydee rn]

Nurse educators,

Are you working more hours than your colleagues in other disciplines. I know I am. Calculation of nursing faculty workload is based on an old formula that awards less credit load for lab and clinical. This devalues the nature of our work. Teaching/learning should be viewed within the context of the sharing of information and achievement of outcomes and not the location of the dialogue. Many schools of nursing throughout the country continue to use this antiquated formula. Nursing faculty salaries are already low and many of us know that our new grads make more money than we do. Paying us less than other disciplines is wrong.

The time has come for faculty who teach in labs and clinicals to be paid fairly. There are obvious inequities when clinical faculty need to work additional hours to make load. Lecture is worth 1 hr, while Labs and clinicals are compensated anywhere from .5 to .83! Yet teaching a lab and or clinical is certainly comparable (at the very least) to any lecture course I teach. Preparation is indeed necessary and the faculty is certainly responsible for patient safety. For years nursing faculty have tolerated this disparity. It needs to end. Making load at my college is 15 hrs/wk for non science faculty and 19 hours/week for nursing faculty. This devalues the nature of our clinical instructions. We love what we do but are tired of our instructional time being viewed as less valuable than other disciplines.

Nursing faculty need to speak out and make changes. Hopefully the results of the NLN/Carnegie survey will support our cause.

I am looking for ways to move this cause forward.

Thanks for your ideas.