Nursing Faculty Shortage

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I am interested in finding out about any creative ways your school/organization is dealing with the shortage of nursing faculty. Parterships with health care organizations, grants, loan forgiveness programs, others?

HI,

I am from Massachusetts, and I have taken a position teaching at the LPN level. We use space located in the tech high school, so not only do I need to have my nursing credentials, I am certified by the Dept. of Ed. as well. The trouble is, the DOE requires a certain number of credits for profesional certification (39 to be exact) that do not apply to a Masters in Nursing Degree. Talk about frustrating! SOOOO, the frustration, financial commitment, long hours of lesson planning, and foolishly low salary all contribute to the lack of available nursing faculty. I would like to get my Master's degree and then take the CNE exam ( And never mind the DOE certification), but right now that is so far off in the future. I spend so long preparing to teach that I do not know how I am going to fit classes in for myself so I can achieve my goals. I think that the position of nurse educator needs to be made a bit more attractive before there is a surplus of candidates.

:flowersfo

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Interesting. In NY the education credits for teaching LPN courses in the BOCES (govt run) -probably similar to what you are in- MAY NOT be in nursing education either. I frankly think that is idiotic, but it is impossible to get around. The ed courses must be in an accredited (regional or national) program that leads to teacher certification.

I can totally understand if the requirement were to be in Curriculum planning,etc. in Nursing. But nope it has to be in the Education Dept-. So ,credits taken in an MS in Nsg Ed do not count! I wish they would change. this.

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What we are hoping is that with a masters, several years experience in education, and Nursing educator certification, we can change the requirements ( Bypass the DOE requirements) and pave the way for others.

The CNE exam is new this year, and there are only a handful of nurse educators that have taken it. My director has, and is trying to back us up with this quest for changing the credential requirements. I have a few years leeway, so I am just taking it one year at a time.

As educators for nurses, we have the most requirements of any of the "tech"

fields in the school. Of course, if we were freestanding or in a community college, we would not have to worry about it at all. I know we share the high scool space, but it is a secondary program for adult learners, so I do not agree that the DOE should reign. I think it should strictly go by the BORN requirements.

Thanks for your input!

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Excellent. Also an issue- the student teaching requirement must be done in a K through 12 setting. Isn't that nuts? So the teaching I did for adult ed does not count even though it was directly related-i.e. teaching CPR, BPs, you know...

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Specializes in ER, Corrections, LTC, ICU, Case Mgt.

I live in eastern NC, and I am just beginning my MSN program with a desire to teach at the ADN level. I keep hearing about the need for teachers, but a quick search on the web tonight showed less than 10 vacancies in the whole state for Nursing faculty,How can this be, why arn't community colleges and universities hiring more staff, all of them are consistantly turning away more than they accept?

By the way, I have a BSN and a BA in communications with over 15 years of nursing experience, does anyone have any suggestions for me to help me get my foot in this elusive door?

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i live in eastern nc, and i am just beginning my msn program with a desire to teach at the adn level. i keep hearing about the need for teachers, but a quick search on the web tonight showed less than 10 vacancies in the whole state for nursing faculty,how can this be, why arn't community colleges and universities hiring more staff, all of them are consistantly turning away more than they accept?

by the way, i have a bsn and a ba in communications with over 15 years of nursing experience, does anyone have any suggestions for me to help me get my foot in this elusive door?

budget - lack of dollars to community colleges. in our state, most of the school funding go to the university level, then the state u level. the cc's are the last to get funding and "get what is left on the stump."

one way to get your foot in the door is to become adjunct faculty while working at another part time job. be open and flexible.

we have one adjunct faculty who so wants to become tenured. but she is always counting her hours and will not do anything more than what she has to do. needless to say, it puts a bad taste in the full time faculties' mouth. when there is a tenure position open, she is passed by. if she would be more a "team" player" it might better her chances.

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Specializes in Gerontological, cardiac, med-surg, peds.
I live in eastern NC, and I am just beginning my MSN program with a desire to teach at the ADN level. I keep hearing about the need for teachers, but a quick search on the web tonight showed less than 10 vacancies in the whole state for Nursing faculty,How can this be, why arn't community colleges and universities hiring more staff, all of them are consistantly turning away more than they accept?

By the way, I have a BSN and a BA in communications with over 15 years of nursing experience, does anyone have any suggestions for me to help me get my foot in this elusive door?

Keep trying - don't give up! These positions are very fluid and vacancies often appear suddenly and in "bunches" (several faculty tend to quit or retire within the same time frame). I agree with rpv_rn, get your foot in the door as an adjunct. This is how many of the fulltime faculty in our ADN program got on board. Be persistent and patient, and network, network, network!!! (Most instructors hired in our program were "friends" with another faculty member and came with a personal recommendation). Some information (dated from last year) on nurse faculty vacancies in NC (pages 40, 41):

http://www.nursenc.org/research/Trends2006/Final%20Report%20Schools%202005.pdf

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Specializes in ER, Corrections, LTC, ICU, Case Mgt.

Thanks for the article it was informative. But I still can't get my head around the original question- If we need more nurses and to get more nurses trained we need more educators, but the colleges are not increasing faculty(full time faculty). Part time faculty might be a bandaid, but unless you reevaluate the programs as a whole and significantly increase the dept's we will never make a dent in the shortage.

Those of you who are full time faculty, can you address this question?

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Thanks for the article it was informative. But I still can't get my head around the original question- If we need more nurses and to get more nurses trained we need more educators, but the colleges are not increasing faculty(full time faculty). Part time faculty might be a bandaid, but unless you reevaluate the programs as a whole and significantly increase the dept's we will never make a dent in the shortage.

Those of you who are full time faculty, can you address this question?

When we ask about hiring full time faculty, the answer is the same -- no budget!

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