Bridging the Gap: Clinical Practice Nursing and the Effect of Role Strain on Successful Role Transition and Intent to Stay in Academia

Abstract

The shortage of registered nurses is inextricably linked to the shortage of nursing faculty which has resulted in the turning away of over 40,000 qualified students in 2010. One solution to the faculty shortage has been to recruit faculty from clinical practice. This often becomes problematic resulting in intent to leave academia within five years. Possible factors contributing to this action are role ambiguity and role strain. This study, therefore, examined role strain experienced by nursing faculty and the extent to which role strain predicted satisfaction with the role transition and intent to stay in academia. Findings revealed that role strain does exist among nursing faculty. Role ambiguity and self-assessed competency are significant predictors of role strain, and role strain is a significant predictor of satisfaction with the role transition and intent to stay. The study also looked at whether age, education, and experience affected role strain, and they were found to be poor predictors.

An Exploration of the Pre-Tenure and Tenure Process Experiences of Canadian Nursing Faculty

“…The transition experiences described by our participants also concur with previous study findings that role strain escalates with increasing complexity and demands of the academic role (Cranford, 2013). Newly hired faculty may choose an academic position following completion of their advanced degree, directly from clinical practice, in a part-time role as a clinical instructor, or after relocating from one institution to another.…”

Training model for online nurse educators

“…[11] A nursing faculty position is very different from a clinical practice and transition into the role is burdened by many challenges. [6,12] Without preparing future faculty and informing them of the expectations of academia the result may be role strain and job dissatisfaction. [4,12] Sharing knowledge and wisdom of experienced nurse educators with novice nurses assists them in assimilating to their new role.…”

Development and Initial Validation of a Measure of Intention to Stay in Academia for Physician Assistant Faculty

“…Typically, this has been done by asking one or few questions regarding intention and then performing statistical analyses of the responses to these questions and examining other factors thought to be related to faculty retention. [12][13][14] This practice of focusing on statistical analysis of data rather than on the measurement of a construct is rather common in social science and higher education research. [15][16][17] This study used a more comprehensive and measurement-based approach to variable operationalization; instead of identifying factors that correlated with or predicted PA faculty responses to intention questions, we attempted to develop a measure of "intention to stay in academia" that had both qualitative and quantitative meaning.…”