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Vital Signs

Nurses for a Healthier Tomorrow Takes Aim at the Nursing Faculty Shortage

According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), in 2003 U.S. nursing schools turned away more than 11,000 qualified applicants. Why? The most frequently cited reason was that the schools did not have enough faculty to teach them.

Several factors have contributed to the nursing faculty shortage, including
academic salaries that have not kept pace with what nurses can earn in clinical positions and fewer nurses graduating with advanced degrees. Considering that the median age of current nursing faculty is 51 years, the situation is expected to worsen over the next 10 years as waves of aging educators hit retirement age.

Of course, when it comes to minority and male nursing faculty, there has always been a severe shortage. Statistics from AACN reveal that only about 9.5% of today’s nursing educators are people of color and even fewer (4.2.%) are men. When the members of this already tiny group begin to retire, who will take their place?

Concerned that the dwindling numbers of nursing faculty are exacerbating America’s nursing shortage, Nurses for a Healthier Tomorrow (NHT) has launched an aggressive national campaign to help increase the number of nursing educators in both academic and clinical settings. NHT is a coalition of 43 leading nursing and health care organizations that have joined forces to address the nursing shortage. Its members include the National Coalition of Ethnic Minority Nurse Associations (NCEMNA), the historically black nursing sorority Chi Eta Phi and the National Student Nurses’ Association.

The campaign’s theme, “Nursing Education. . .Pass It On,” is designed to encourage nurses and students to consider the personal and professional rewards of a teaching career. To spread this message, the campaign features a variety of promotional materials, including a series of four print ads, a Web banner and a recruiting flyer. NHT is also conducting a publicity campaign to nursing journals and the mass media and has added a new Nurse Educator career profile to the Career Info section of its Web site (see www.nursesource.org/nurse_educator.html).

The print ads, which were created for NHT pro bono by JWT Specialized Communications, feature profiles of four real-life nursing educators, including Randolph Rasch, RN, PhD, FNP, professor and program director, FNP specialty, at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing. In the ad, Rasch, who is African American, talks about his passion for mentoring and being a role model for students from diverse backgrounds. A campaign spokesperson tells Minority Nurse that the Rasch ad is the one most often requested by nursing journals. Many young black male nurses who have seen the ad have contacted Rasch about possible mentoring, she reports.

Because this initiative’s success will rely heavily on grass roots support, NHT is counting on its coalition members to take the lead in bringing the “become a professor” message to their constituencies. Minority Nurse readers can also help get the word out by distributing the “Nursing Education. . .Pass It On” promotional materials in their own workplaces and communities--e.g., by posting them on bulletin boards, distributing them to nursing staff and students, etc. For more information and to download campaign materials, visit NHT’s Web site at www.nursesource.org (click on “Campaign News”).