The Nursing Faculty Shortage

1. The Nursing Faculty Shortage A Phenomenological Approach C.Karl RN MSN, Doctoral Candidate

2. CHAPTER ONE: TURNING TO THE PHENOMENON: THE FALL FROM THE WALLS The Wall A wall’s a place to call my own A place to rest upon. A place whose shadows let us hide, A place to stay alone. A wall is made of sturdy stone but those who sit and claim their space, they make the wall their very own. And when they leave, another comes And settles in to take their place Upon these walls, the strong have stood, And from them fell the weak They’ve much to tell, if talk walls could And someone’s there to hear them speak. (Karl & Parry, 2005).

3. Maryland’s Shortage of NursesMBON crisis in nursing • Though the number of active nurses is growing, state and national projections predict that • shortages will increase as the population ages and requires more care, at the same time • that practicing nurses start to retire in larger numbers. In Maryland, this confluence of • factors is expected to result in a shortage of 17,116 nurses by 2012. www.mbon.org / website address

4. Faculty Shortage/ Causes • Causes of the faculty shortage include: • an aging nurse faculty workforce— • large numbers of faculty retirements are anticipated in the near future— • and a limited pool of potential nurse educators. • Barriers to recruiting qualified new faculty include: • limited availability of master’s and doctoral programs with a focus on nursing education; • under-representation of minority groups (including men) on faculty; • inadequate faculty compensation school budgetary limitations); • To elaborate on only one aspect of the problem, the average salary for a practicing nurse with an advanced degree is $80,000, but a nursing faculty member makes about $50,000. • workplace issues such as workload, scheduling,student attitudes and abilities, and generational and cultural issues.

5. Quantitative Statistics A 2005 survey by the Maryland Council of Directors of Associate Degree and Baccalaureate Programs reported 30.5 vacant full-time positions in Maryland’s 24 nursing programs. • The gap between need and supply can only grow as the demand for new nurses accelerates with an aging population and as faculty retire without adequate replacements

6. Recommendations Faculty Recruitment and Retention • Continue to promote faculty roles to the nursing population with career fairs, articles, seminars, etc. • Establish and maintain competitive salaries and compensation, to make the faculty role a viable career option. • Broaden options for interested nurses to become qualified to teach through teacher certification, education tracks at the master’s and doctoral levels, etc. • Recognize clinical practice as a valid route for faculty contribution in lieu of research and publication. • Continue to prime the pipeline for future faculty, by, for example, expanding access to master’s degree programs throughout the state, implementing distance learning options, expanding and promoting associate- to master’s-degree programs in nursing, and offering scholarships and other financial incentives to nurses who will complete advanced degrees and teach.

7. More Recommendations • Implement joint appointments and other personnel assignment strategies that support and complement full-time faculty. • Investigate flexible scheduling options for faculty. • Develop a mechanism for central advertising using a shared Web site to post full-, part-time, and adjunct positions. • Explore the potential for shared faculty appointments for specialty services, e.g., psychiatry, pediatrics, obstetrics, and community health.

8. The Role of Nurse Educators • Nurse educators are a critical resource in preparing the nursing workforce. • In spite of faculty vacancies, Maryland schools were able to admit 2,129 students in academic year 2003. • The most common strategy used to compensate for unfilled budgeted full-time positions is hiring more part-time faculty. • Many schools also resort to increased teaching loads.This results in larger classes or teaching additional courses, adversely affecting faculty recruitment and retention

9. Required Faculty Qualifications • Nurse educators practice in clinical and academic settings and therefore must be competent clinicians. However, while being a good clinician is essential, it is not sufficient for the educator role. Regardless of the setting in which the nurse educator is employed, there is a core of knowledge and skills that is essential if one is to be effective and achieve excellence in the role (p. 2).31 • Core knowledge and skills include the ability to: 􀂾 Facilitate learning. 􀂾 Advance the total development and profession. 􀂾 Socialize the learner. 􀂾 Evaluate learning outcomes (p. 2).32 • The National League for Nursing (NLN) recommends that nurse educators need advanced clinical knowledge and advanced research skills, and they need knowledge and skills in education.

10. Educational Qualifications of Maryland Nursing Faculty

11. Reasons for Leaving • Other – 18% * • Unknown- 8% • Workload- 2% • Salary- 5% • Return to clinical practice- 23% • Family Responsibilities- 8% • Spouse Relocation- 12% • Career Advancement – 18% • Advanced Education- 4% * Other = teaching not what expected / salary & Family/ desire to do other things/ grant expired

12. Now Lets Look at the Shortage Qualitatively • Using Phenomenology • Narrative • Interpretive • Thematic • Using The ways of the Philosophers • Heidegger • Husserl • Gadamer • Van Manen / Methodology

13. Looking thru another Lens • Scientific tradition can act as a limiting factor toward understanding human agency. In continuing this line of thought, Leonard illustrates how Heiddeger gives the example of the hammer. We use the hammer in an assumed way until it no longer functions in this manner, then we reflect on what it cannot do. In the same way, I would say that nurse educators are perceived in their teaching role until they no longer teach. Only then do we, as observers of this absence, take notice of their being as a nurse educator.

14. What is Phenomenology? • Identify a Phenomenon/ Ask a Question • What is the lived experience of Community college nursing faculty who leave the profession of teaching? • Interview more than once and thematize • What are they really saying? • What is their Lived Experience?

15. Heidegger (1953/1996) • The concept of phenomenolog comes from the Greek word phainomenon, which means to show itself. It is this self-showing that makes itself known to others. Phenomenology combines the two terms, phenomenon and logos. The word phenomenon means a self-showing, an experience that has a distinctive way in which it can be encountered. The Greek word Logos means “speech, word, and reason which is the controlling principle in the universe”(Webster, 2001, p. 684). Heidgger says: • That phenomenology is “to the things themselves” … Phenomenology is the way of access to and the demonstrative manner of determination of, what is to become the theme of ontology…The methodological meaning of phenomenological description is interpretation. (pp. 30-33)

16. Merleau-Ponty (1945/2005) • Phenomenology is a matter of describing, not explaining. “Phenomenology, as a disclosure of the world, rests on itself, or rather provides its own foundation” (p. xxiii). It is this disclosure of the experience, the very nature of the experience or it’s essence, which is our effective involvement in the world. To understand the experiences of nurse educators as they leave teaching is to unveil the essence of what it means to be a nurse educator and what it means to leave.”

17. Van Manen (1990) • a phenomenological study requires a deep understanding of the phenomenon. “But in the human sciences …one does not pursue research for the sake of research”…. To do research is always to question the way we experience the world in which we live as human beings…Then research is a caring act: we want to know that which is most essential to being” (pp. 1-5). He continues describing the process by charging me to understand that “Hermeneutic phenomenology is fundamentally a writing activity” (p. 7).

18. The Methodology • 1.Turning to a phenomenon which seriously interests us and commits us to the world. • 2.Investigating experience as we live it rather than as we conceptualize it. • 3.Reflecting on the essential themes which characterize the phenomenon • 4.Describing the phenomenon through the art of writing and rewriting. • 5.Maintaining a strong and oriented pedagogical relation to the phenomenon. • 6.Balancing the research context by considering parts and whole.

19. Retracing our Roots • In one of her famous addresses to her probationers (student nurses), Nightingale writes: • To be a good nurse, one must be an improving woman; for stagnant waters sooner or later, and stagnant air, as we know ourselves, always grow corrupt and unfit for use. Is any one of us a stagnant woman? 1

20. Dorothea Orem • A valid general concept of nursing establishes the specific nature and characteristics of nursing as (a) a field of human endeavor directed towards the achievement of specific types of results and (b) as organized, structured knowledge with a foundation in first principles arising from the nature of man and society…Work-preparatory programs should be seen as dynamic, not static. We have much in our heritage to overcome… • Sound professional education has emerged in the twentieth century. Our contribution as nurses, nurse educators and educationists toward the development of nursing education and practice should be both realistic and creative-forward thinking and not bound by traditions.

21. Zderad and Patterson • In Zderad and Paterson’s theory of Humanistic Nursing (1976), nurse educators are challenged to look to a framework in which to teach nursing as a discipline. They use the phenomenological methodology to enter into an understanding of the nurse-patient relationship from the teaching-learning vantage of the nurse educator. The “humanistic nursing approach respects nursing experience as a source of wisdom. By describing and conceptualizing the phenomena experienced in nursing situations, nurses could contribute to the development of nursing as a discipline

22. Why Do We Teach • Because I like to teach, I love the students, I like to see their growth … I enjoy teaching, … really and truly seeing the growth of the students, when that light bulb goes off, knowing that you make a difference and growing a nursing population, that’s what we need to do.

23. For Me it is Personal • Van Manen (1990) says:In a larger existential sense human beings have searched for this experience of the other, the communal, the social for a sense of purpose in life, meaningfulness, grounds for living, as in a religious experience of the absolute Other, God” (p. 105). I had found my sense of purpose through the art of teaching.  As I taught others, I became aware of their lived experiences and this enabled me to contribute even more to their learning.

24. One’s Word On Leaving • Melissa felt taken for granted much as the curriculum was taken for granted and never felt that she had the opportunity to be a part of the revolutionizing of the curriculum. She never heard the call to care because of the difficulty within nursing departments of maintaining meaningful and sustained communication about teaching. It is absurd to believe that any profession can be sustained in silence

25. Now What? • More Narrative • More Interpretation • More Writing • Re-Writing • Thank you !!!!