Study finds decline in nursing faculty primary barrier to nursing program expansion

[VickyRN]

recent study shows decline in nursing faculty and advanced practice nurses

a recent report found that the number of nurses in north carolina pursuing advanced degrees is not enough to meet the demand in faculty and advanced practice roles. forecasts on supply-and-demand project there may be fewer than half the faculty needed to train new nurses in north carolina by the year 2020. the demographic sampled in the state was comparable to the national population of registered nurses measured in the latest national nurses sample survey.

the report, published in the may issue of american journal of nursing, was part of a study that followed new graduates from three decades (groups licensed in 1984, 1994, and 2004) to examine the educational mobility of nurses. the results found that such things as age, sex, and race were associated with a person's likelihood to pursue advanced degrees. for additional information, visit:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-05/ajon-sfd051007.php

[llg, PhD, RN]

LLg, I completely agree with everything you are saying and it is only logical. However, isn't it also true that PhD-prepared nursing faculty are also payed lower than many other PhDs in other departments? For example, my husband is going to be starting his PhD program in mechanical engineering. He is looking at a starting salary of 80,000-90,000 for an entry-level faculty position, with lots of room for advancement and increasing salary. ?

There is some variation in faculty salaries for different departments, but usually not all that much. Engineering just happens to be one of the very highest paid disciplines. If you look at salaries for all the different departments, nursing is not significantly below most departments. Some folks in departments like, English, History, etc. often earn less than their Nursing counterparts. Business, Engineering, Computer Science, etc. ... these fields tend to be better paid. Considering the whole world of academia, nursing seems to fall around average or only slightly below it -- if you compare faculty with equal credentials.

I've gotten my information from national surveys published in The Chronical of Higher Education. I'll try to find some of those articles later today and share some of the specific numbers.

[llg, PhD, RN]

Here is a table I copied from an article in The Chronicle of Higher Education in the 3/10/06 edition. The spacing probably won't come out exactly right, but I'll try to make it readable. Each field is listed, then the average pay listed for each rank within that department. I thought engineers were better paid than that. The figure listed by KatRN,BSN is much higher than the one listed for a new Assistant Professor. There must be some special reason going on there.

Also note that the nursing salaries for the New Assistant Professor rank is $51,716 -- a bit higher than that for many disciplines. It's hard for nursing faculties to fight for higher salaries when they are already earning more than many of their peers in other departments. It's even harder when the nurses don't have PhD's and the other disciplines require it.

AVERAGE FACULTY SALARIES BY FIELD AND RANK AT 4-YEAR COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES, 2005-6

Professor Associate professor Assistant professor* New assistant professor Instructor

Agriculture, agriculture operations, and related sciences $82,974 $64,667 $55,315 $56,288 $40,998

Architecture and related services $85,441 $67,086 $53,593 $54,101 $44,715

Area, ethnic, cultural, and gender studies $90,973 $66,427 $53,655 $51,099 $38,548

Biological and biomedical sciences $90,040 $63,929 $54,101 $51,883 $39,798

Business, management, marketing, and related support services $102,702 $84,095 $78,151 $80,252 $49,271

Communication, journalism, and related programs $77,496 $60,411 $49,515 $47,806 $38,806

Communications technologies/ technicians and support services $79,178 $66,244 $52,973 $46,959 $45,942

Computer and information sciences and support services $98,705 $78,944 $69,178 $68,257 $46,672

Education $78,179 $60,615 $50,296 $49,333 $40,344

Engineering $107,961 $80,206 $70,019 $68,707 $49,592

Engineering technologies/technicians $79,446 $65,687 $56,114 $56,113 $43,452

English language and literature/letters $76,413 $57,921 $47,249 $45,882 $34,712

Family and consumer sciences/ human sciences $79,665 $62,437 $51,055 $49,988 $38,486

Foreign languages, literatures, and linguistics $79,964 $60,068 $48,900 $47,016 $37,111

History $80,706 $59,470 $47,994 $45,723 $38,030

Legal professions and studies $136,634 $98,530 $81,005 $79,437 $56,667

Liberal arts and sciences, general studies, and humanities $74,228 $59,982 $48,635 $47,094 $38,620

Library science $77,583 $65,296 $47,972 $49,783 $41,059

Mathematics and statistics $84,059 $61,647 $51,547 $50,151 $37,761

Multi/interdisciplinary studies $83,214 $62,098 $51,710 $45,928 $38,060

Natural resources and conservation $85,141 $64,326 $53,200 $51,262 $41,482

Nursing $77,583 $63,615 $53,075 $51,716 $46,292

Parks, recreation, leisure, and fitness studies $73,748 $59,905 $49,618 $49,597 $39,413

Philosophy and religious studies $82,030 $59,429 $48,162 $46,785 $37,906

Physical sciences $89,187 $62,743 $52,775 $51,354 $40,256

Psychology $82,554 $60,840 $50,315 $48,698 $39,546

Public administration and social-service professions $84,902 $63,523 $52,311 $52,389 $43,747

Security and protective services $77,614 $62,000 $49,711 $47,237 $40,625

Science technologies/technicians $68,888 $62,953 — — —

Social sciences $87,079 $63,842 $52,998 $51,720 $39,634

Theology and religious vocations $68,214 $56,943 $45,927 $44,731 $41,072

Visual and performing arts $73,177 $57,843 $47,043 $45,382 $39,102

* Includes data for new assistant professors.

Note: © 2006 by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources. Contact CUPA-HR (http://www.cupahr.org) for permission to reprint the data. All rights reserved. The figures are averages for public and private institutions combined. They are based on reports covering nearly 226,000 faculty members at 844 public and private four-year colleges and universities. The figures cover full-time faculty members on 9- or 10-month contracts. A dash indicates insufficient data.

SOURCE: College and University Professional Association for Human Resources