The United States is amid a nursing faculty shortage. The American Association of College of Nursing (AACN) reports 1,179 full-time vacancies plus a need for an additional 138 full-time faculty for the 2018-2019 academic year (Li, Turinetti, & Fang, 2018). A school of nursing in the Midwest is experiencing these same challenges with faculty recruitment due to doubling of student enrollment. This university took a proactive approach in supporting new nursing faculty as they transition from the expert clinician to a novice nurse educator.
Novice nurse educators often have clinical expertise but lack pedagogical preparation and use of evidence-based teaching strategies (Booth, Emerson, Hackney, & Souter, 2016). While novice educators are masters or doctorate prepared, some programs continue to lack inclusion of best teaching practices (Booth, et al., 2016). Schoening (2013) depicts the transition in the nurse educator transition model. In the model, nurse educators move from a disorientation phase to information seeking phase (Schoening, 2013). The information seeking phase is vital in moving from a novice nurse educator to expert nurse educator.
How can a nursing school embrace and support nurse educators during this phase in a cost-effective way? The answer can be found within the walls of the academic institution. Higher education institutions have limited resources but must invest in faculty development (Baldwin & Chang, 2007). A collaborative partnership between the school of nursing and the teaching and learning center at this Midwest university was established as a means to support novice nurse educators.
Methods:
Initially, professional development nursing faculty provided university instructional designers (IDs) with the results of a faculty needs assessment. Training by IDs was developed and delivered to new nursing faculty over a semester. Feedback from new nursing faculty demonstrated the need for more education on pedagogy. A collaborative relationship began with the IDs and the nursing faculty to provide customized pedagogical training and resources to new nursing faculty at little cost to the organization.
IDs and nursing faculty collaboratively developed a future needs assessment. Together they collaboratively planned and executed numerous professional development sessions focusing on the top needs of the new nursing faculty. These included interactive live sessions on utilizing active learning classroom spaces, actively engaging students with non-technological polling, and using collaborative online tools to enhance student learning.
Results:
New nursing faculty provided positive feedback after the training, which included increased self-efficacy in teaching strategies and increased student engagement in the classroom. Based on nursing faculty feedback, there is a need for more trainings on topics, including post-conference engagement and interactive online teaching.
Conclusion:
Investing in new nursing faculty through collaborative relationships within the university setting is a low cost, sustainable method to retain novice faculty. Utilizing teaching and learning pedagogical experts to provide tailored evidenced-based pedagogical strategies to nursing faculty provides essential faculty development. The development of teaching competency promotes self-efficacy and retention among new nurse faculty (McDermid, Peters, Daly, & Jackson, 2016; Cooley & De Gagne, 2016). Investing in new nurse faculty equals investing in the future of new nurse graduates.