Nursing As A Career. Dwindling Supply and Increasing Demand. Nursing As A Career: Supply, Demand and Qualification
Nursing As A Career: Supply, Demand and Qualification
Nursing As A Career
Do you have a passion for advancing the quality of nursing practice? Do you have a passion for teaching and learning? Are you interested in pedagogical research? If you have answered yes to these questions, you already possess the characteristics that motivate the majority of nursing educators and you may want to consider a career in nursing education.
The purpose of this topic is to discuss the future of nursing education as a career, qualifications for the role of nursing educators, current challenges in nursing education, and possible resources to support such a career path.
Dwindling Supply and Increasing Demand
Perhaps there is no better time to talk about forging a career in nursing education than now. Over the past several years, much attention has been placed on recruitment and retention strategies as a result of the continuing nursing shortage. Less attention has been placed on the nursing faculty shortage, yet this problem has been brewing ever so quietly for several years.
The nursing shortage faculty became more visible with the success of recruitment strategies to nursing, when the demand for nursing faculty rose. There can be little fruitful discussion of nursing education as a career without reference to the current reality of faculty shortage.
There is ample evidence of the decreasing supply and increasing demand for nursing faculty. According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing’s (AACN) Survey on Vacant Faculty Positions (AACN, 2005), a national nursing faculty vacancy rate of 8.5% exists, which increased from a vacancy rate of 8.1% in 2004.
Tens of thousands of Prospective nursing students are denied entrance into nursing programs because of dwindling faculty resources. A dwindling supply and increasing demand for nursing faculty in turn perpetuates the nursing shortage. This vacancy rate is likely to increase in the foreseeable future for the following reasons.
First, nursing faculty retirements are expected in large numbers over the next decade because of the exodus of baby boomers.
The National League for Nursing (NLN) projects that “75% of the current faculty population is expected to retire by 2019” (2004, p. 5). Second, there has been a declining rate at which graduate nursing students are choosing a career in nursing education (NLN, 2004). AACN’s introduction of the clinical nursing leader (CNL) and the doctorate of nursing practice (DNP) degree programs is not likely to contribute faculty supply, and some fear that it may worsen supply issues.
For example, prospective candidates may decide on earning a practice-based doctorate as opposed to a traditional research-based doctorate. Individuals who have earned practice-based doctorates will possess expertise more congruent with practice environments, and will not be grounded in theoretical and research knowledge needed for a career in academe.
Furthermore, the development of the CNL and DNP curricula requires additional investments of faculty time and resources that may augment current resource challenges. A myriad of other factors exist that influence the current nursing faculty shortage. Salary is a consideration in that clinical positions offer significantly higher salaries than academic positions, due to the relatively fixed budget constraints of academic institutions (AACN, 2003).
Students with graduate degrees in nursing have more career options within and outside the profession. In nursing, advanced practice nurses may choose clinical positions that are congruent with their values and skills, and offer more compensation than nursing education. In the corporate environment, opportunities are available for nurses with advanced degrees in pharmaceutical research and sales, insurance industries, publishing companies, and entrepreneurial and other options.
These options generally offer higher compensation packages than those available in academe. Although public perception of nurses remains high, the general public does not have clear ideas about what nurses do and nurses have remained relatively silent in educating them about the work of nursing (Buresh & Gordon, 2000).
In the media, nurses are often portrayed in an anti-intellectual context and nurses are viewed as less knowledgeable members of the health-care team. Nurse educators often find themselves in similar circumstances. A chemistry professor would rarely be asked what her doctoral degree was in, but nursing professors are frequently asked this question, which signals outdated perceptions on the part of the general public. The fact that there already is a national nursing faculty shortage should not paralyze individuals from considering nursing education as a career.
In fact, our current reality opens the door for thoughtful and innovative discussion that is likely to produce more promising models for the education of nursing students in the 21st century. Research is an integral part of that discussion as nursing educators are challenged to examine best practices in nursing education.
For example, nurse educators have traditionally held clinical practice with students as sacred learning time. Yet, one may question whether faculty to student ratios of 1:12 or more result in effective clinical learning. Are there more effective ways of promoting clinical judgment in students? This is but one area in need of research in nursing education, there are many others.
Qualifications
In order to teach nursing, one must be a registered nurse who has received advanced educational preparation in a clinical specialty. A master’s degree in nursing is required to teach in a 2- or 4-year program. Most 4-year colleges or universities require a doctoral degree for tenure track positions, however.
Due to greater recognition of the nursing faculty shortage, schools of nursing have become more interested in developing nursing education program tracks or post–masters certificates in nursing education for those individuals who have previously earned a master’s degree in nursing.
Many of these programs are available in an accelerated fashion, online, or are blended offerings, thereby appealing to a variety of students. Because these programs are targeted for the working nurse, courses are often offered on a specific schedule to enhance planning, or courses are offered through distance education, thereby saving travel time. Nursing education programs offer greater flexibility today than in the past.
For example, students seeking to earn a post–masters certificate in nursing education may often use those earned credits toward a doctoral degree in the future, rather than duplicating required courses. Graduate course work in educational and learning theory is needed to provide the additional grounding in the area of best practices with regard to teaching and learning.
In order to facilitate learning and intellectual curiosity in students, nurse educators must be fully knowledgeable in the area of educational theory and educational psychology while engaging in practices that facilitate self-reflection in one’s own practice. Educators must understand the process of learning so that teaching strategies are used to engage students actively in their own learning.
Expressive and/or reflective journaling before and after clinical experiences are powerful means of encouraging students to think about their anxieties, assumptions, and decision-making related to patient care. By reflecting on one’s work, nurse educators continually challenge themselves to improve teaching practices that promote learning while also role modeling the importance of self-reflection as a lifelong learning strategy for students.
Case studies, simulated learning, and problem-based learning are other strategies that require students to assume a more active role in their learning. The nurse of the future needs to be educated as a thinker and not just a doer, so strategies that encourage critical reflection or thoughtful analysis of one’s practice must be emphasized and modeled.
Read More:
https://nurseseducator.com/nursing-as-a-career-role-of-the-nurse-educator-in-the-21st-century/
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