FOCUSonRETENTION:Identifying Barriers to Nurse Faculty Satisfaction

Abstract

There has been a great deal of attention focused upon the professional and faculty nursing shortage. Retirement rates of seasoned nurse faculty, fewer nurses pursuing academic roles as nursing faculty, and insufficient numbers of nurses in doctoral programs hinder the ability to educate willing students to become professional nurses. The aim of this descriptive, quantitative study in the New England region was to determine barriers to job satisfaction as reported by nurse faculty. A 32-item survey was used with questions about workload, satisfaction, and identified barriers to satisfaction. Responses from 226 nurse faculty support findings regarding factors essential to job satisfaction, including work environment and workload. Implications for the study findings include the need for attention to the complexity of the academic work environment, specifically in nursing education.

Initial evaluation of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Nurse Faculty Scholars program

“…According to a nursing faculty census, more than 50% of junior faculty had not met criteria for scholarship that supports promotion and tenure, including publication, grant funding, and national presentations (NLN, 2002). The assumption of multiple roles; dealing with competing priorities; balancing the tripartite mission of research, education, and service (Banks, 2012; Garand et al, 2010); and the lack of mentoring (Bittner & O’Connor, 2012; Nies & Troutman-Jordan, 2012; Specht, 2013) often serve as barriers to junior nursing faculty success as they enter academia.…”

Lead Faculty Workload Model

“…4 Perceptions of workload are an integral part of job satisfaction for nurse faculty retention. 16 There is a need for development and evaluation of workload models that include all aspects of faculty work in the current educational environment and that are also informed by universities promotion and tenure guidelines and departmental resources. 4,16 Development of the Lead Faculty Workload Model…”

Occupational stress facing nurse academics—A mixed‐methods systematic review

“…Several studies identified barriers to job satisfaction and examined factors responsible for the retention of nursing academics (Bittner & O'Connor, 2012;Tourangeau et al, 2013). In relation to the barriers to job satisfaction, findings (Bittner & O'Connor, 2012;Tourangeau et al, 2013) indicated that 57% of the participants (n = 226) felt that a sense of accomplishment, coupled with autonomy in the role (50%), having healthy relationships with colleagues (49.3%) and feeling safe at work (38.5%), did contribute to greater job satisfaction (Bittner & O'Connor, 2012) including quality mentoring (Gwyn, 2011).…”

“…Several studies identified barriers to job satisfaction and examined factors responsible for the retention of nursing academics (Bittner & O'Connor, 2012;Tourangeau et al, 2013). In relation to the barriers to job satisfaction, findings (Bittner & O'Connor, 2012;Tourangeau et al, 2013) indicated that 57% of the participants (n = 226) felt that a sense of accomplishment, coupled with autonomy in the role (50%), having healthy relationships with colleagues (49.3%) and feeling safe at work (38.5%), did contribute to greater job satisfaction (Bittner & O'Connor, 2012) including quality mentoring (Gwyn, 2011). Some of the factors identified that contributed to greater job satisfaction in nursing academia included the need to have a better work-life balance (Roughton, 2013), secured tenureship (Smeltzer et al, 2015), have high levels of work-related empowerment (Sarmiento et al, 2004), greater engagement in assessing faculty quality of education and supporting collegial relationships (Tourangeau et al, 2013), have better teaching support and realistic workloads (Yedidia et al, 2014), more rewarding remuneration in salary (Westphal et al, 2016) and elimination of social bullying (Wieland & Beitz, 2015).…”