Poster Presentation
Friday, July 13, 2007
9:30 AM - 10:15 AM
Friday, July 13, 2007
3:15 PM - 4:00 PM
Gender, Practice, and Policy: A Feminist Perspective of the Nursing Faculty Shortage
LaWanda Herron, MSN, RN, CFNP, School of Nursing, Delta State University, Cleveland, MS, USA
| Learning Objective #1: identify key factors that nurse educators perceive are contributing to the critical shortage of nursing faculty.
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| Learning Objective #2: discuss how gender influences nurse eductors' work environment, practice, and policy development. |
The nation is facing a critical shortage of registered nurses. At a time when the health care industry requires more nurses, the capacity of the nursing education system is diminishing. The nursing shortage is intricately tied to the nursing faculty shortage. The shortage of nurses requires educational programs to supply more graduates; however, the shortage of nursing faculty limits student enrollments and likely decreases the number of graduates. The nursing shortage is due to a decrease in the number of individuals entering the profession. Additionally, an inadequate number of teaching facilities, a limited number of clinical sites, and decreased availability of qualified nursing faculty are contributing to the shortage. Research shows that the availability of qualified faculty is and will continue to be a severe limitation on the number of nurses. Experts suggest nursing faculty are an endangered species and one generation from extinction.
Nursing is bound in an ideology based on women’s duty and members of the profession have had to battle sexist beliefs and values. Hierarchies within the health care system and academia place the status of women subservient to men. Subsequently, the crisis in the nursing profession can not be explored without examining the relationship between the role of the nurse and the position of women. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the influence of gender, practice, and policy on the nursing faculty shortage as perceived by nurse educators. Using a qualitative approach through the phenomenological method, the researcher elicited information about lived experiences of female nurse educators. Feminist critical analysis provided the framework to explore the nursing faculty shortage. The preliminary data indicate nurse educators perceive that employment in gendered institutions may influence their work environment, compensation levels, and policy development thus contributing to the nursing faculty shortage.