The Mentoring Experiences of Adjunct Nursing Faculty: A Phenomenological Inquiry

Background: The nursing faculty shortage is threatening health care’s infrastructure at a time when the shortage of nurses is at critical levels. This rising nurse faculty shortage across the nation is preventing student enrollment and threatening health care’s infrastructure at a time when the shortage of registered nurses (RNs) is at a critical level. To fill many of the vacant faculty positions, schools of nursing are increasingly hiring adjunct instructors. However, many adjuncts are face difficulties transitioning to the faculty role. Mentoring is widely cited as a strategy to assist in this transition, but limited research explores the mentoring experiences of these instructors.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the lived mentoring experiences of adjunct nursing faculty in undergraduate nursing programs.

Philosophical Underpinning: A transcendental phenomenological qualitative approach was guided by the interpretivist paradigm to gain an understanding of the lived mentoring experiences of adjunct nursing faculty.

Methods: The target population was adjunct nursing faculty who teach students in undergraduate nursing programs. Purposive and snowball sampling were used and data analysis was guided by Moustakas’s (1994) transcendental phenomenology. Face-to-face and Skype interviews were utilized to collect data, which was then transcribed by a transcriptionist, reviewed by the research and the transcripts were authenticated by the participants. The data was entered into the NVivo 11 computer software by the researcher to organize and code the data. Individual textural and structural descriptions were compiled after each interview.

Results: From 20 adjunct nursing faculty three themes and two sub-themes emerged: transferring, transitioning (Sub-themes: Lacking orientation and Lacking mentorship) and transforming.

Conclusions: This study reveal that adjunct nursing faculty are motivated to transfer their nursing knowledge and experience to the next generation of nurses. However, they face numerous challenges in transitioning from clinician to the adjunct faculty role. This study supports the need for robust mentoring and orientation programs to transform this underrepresented group of instructors into successful nurse educators