Strategies for Nursing Faculty Job Satisfaction and Retention

The need for registered nurses in the United Sates continues to grow, yet the shortage of nursing faculty limits student enrollment. Funding reductions, faculty retirement and resignations, and increasing job competition from clinical sites have contributed to faculty’s employment in nursing colleges. To add to the challenges, the role nursing faculty’s role is becoming more complex with academic expectations in the areas of research, teaching, service and scholarly activities. Recognizing the variables associated with nursing faculty work-life is critical for changing strategies to gain and retain faculty. To achieve the goal of increased numbers of nurses to care for society requires gaining and retaining qualified faculty. The concept of job satisfaction is important because it connects with the intent to stay. Few empirical studies have been conducted on a national scale or in the last decade addressing the variables associated with job satisfaction and intent to stay in nursing academia. In the few studies found, reasons faculty leave academia have been reported as (a) low salary; (b) horizontal hostility; (c) career change; (d) family obligations. These varied outcomes of relationships warrant the need for colleges and universities to gain deeper understanding of nursing faculty job satisfaction indicators. The purpose of this retrospective study is to analyze variables for relationships with nurse faculty job satisfaction and intent to stay from data collected throughout the United States. The inquiry question guiding the study is: what is the relationship between job satisfaction and intent to stay in nursing faculty considering the following variables (a) personal and family policies; (b) collaboration; (c) tenure clarity; (d) institutional leadership; (e) shared governance; (f) career development; (g) departmental engagement? To answer the guiding question, the scientists utilized The Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) data collection and survey developed through cooperating of more than 200 institutions of higher education. As a national research project, COACHE produces numerous reports and key findings through survey data about what motivates faculty to remain at or depart from an institution. For this study, results were collected from participating institutions with programs of nursing. The survey is composed of 13 categories each containing multiple items and approximately 150 items were selected. The dependent variables in this study were job satisfaction and intent to stay, as measured by the respondent’s self-reported job satisfaction and intentions to remain at their current institution. Job satisfaction was assessed using three items from the COACHE survey (α = .89).  Intent to stay was assessed using a single item asking respondents to report how long they planned to remain at their current institution on a three point scale. Independent variables included single-items (e.g., age, gender, race, tenure status, academic rank, and institutional type) where participants reported demographic and background information, as well as multi-item measures aimed at assessing personal and family policies (4 items; α = .79), collaboration (3 items; α = .76), tenure clarity (4 items; α = .95), institutional leadership (9 items; α = .94), shared governance (3 items; α = .76), and departmental engagement (5 items; α = .75). Over 1,350 nursing faculty provided data on gender, race, rank, tenure status, institutional type, and work factors. The finding were that job satisfaction was positively associated with personal and family policies, collaboration, tenure clarity, institutional leadership, shared governance, and departmental engagement. Likewise, intent to stay was positively associated with all the listed variables above except tenure clarity.  The implications for nursing academic administration and executive leadership are as following:  personal and family policies that are unfavorable to faculty retention need to be deleted or revised; chairs and deans need to provide a culture of support and development for faculty, clearly written and orally communicated faculty expectations need to be given to candidates and hired employees, especially those seeking tenure.