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The Shortage
of Doctorally Prepared Nursing Faculty
in Institutions with Baccalaureate and
Graduate Nursing Programs: American Association
of Colleges of Nursing Perspective
Geraldine D. Bednash, Ph.D., R.N.,
F.A.A.N., Executive Director
American Association of Colleges of Nursing
Linda E. Berlin, Dr.P.H., R.N.C.,
Director of Research and Data Services
American Association of Colleges of Nursing
On behalf of the American Association
of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), I thank
you for the opportunity to share some
of the information that AACN collects
about full-time nurse faculty in baccalaureate
and graduate level nursing programs. In
addition to salary data, AACN's extensive
national faculty database contains information
on faculty characteristics, including
age, rank, level of education, teaching
responsibilities, tenure status, resignations,
and retirements.
The shortage of doctorally prepared
nursing faculty in baccalaureate and graduate
programs in nursing has been an issue
of growing concern during the past several
years. Why should we worry about sufficient
numbers of faculty? We should be concerned
because the shortage of faculty is contributing
to the current nursing shortage by limiting
the number of students admitted to nursing
programs. AACN collects data on applications
to baccalaureate, master's, and doctoral
programs every two years; and in 2000-2001
there were 5,832 qualified applications
to baccalaureate, master's, and doctoral
programs that were not accepted. An insufficient
number of faculty was cited by 32.8% of
the respondents as a reason for not accepting
all qualified students (Berlin, Bednash,
& Stennett, 2001). A special survey
was conducted in 2000 to determine the
vacancy rate for faculty. In a national
sample of 220 schools (38% of AACN-member
institutions), there were 5,132 full-time
faculty positions. Of these positions,
379 (7.4%) were vacant. The mean number
of vacancies per school was 1.7 with a
range of 0-17; only 20 schools reported
no vacancies. Educational requirements
were listed for 297 of the vacancies.
Sixty-four percent (64.2%) of the vacancies
required an earned doctorate; and a master's
degree with doctorate preferred was required
for 30.7% of the positions. Hence, the
preponderance of vacancies is for people
with doctoral preparations. Vacancies
for master's prepared faculty was 4.5%
and positions categorized as other was
2.6 percent (AACN, 2000).
Factors Contributing
to the Shortage of Faculty
Why is there a shortage of doctorally
prepared faculty and why can't we attract
and retain more master's and doctorally
prepared people to serve in the faculty
role? Recurrent themes include salary
inequities, competition with other marketplaces,
the aging faculty workforce, departure
from academic life, enrollment declines
in nursing programs, and the prolonged
time to completion of the doctoral degree.
Salary Inequities
and Competition with Other Marketplaces
Clearly, a key issue facing academic
nursing is salaries that are noncompetitive
with other marketplaces. In 2001-2002,
the median calendar-year salary for an
assistant professor in a public university
was $63,500 and $55,260 for doctoral and
master's prepared faculty, respectively
(Berlin, Stennett, & Bednash, 2002b).
Where is the competition? A sample of
clinical and administrative nursing salaries
is presented in Table 1 (Tumolo &
Collins, 2001; Salary.Com, 2002).
Sources: Berlin, L.E., Stennett,
J., & Bednash, G.D. (2002b), Salary.Com
(March 2002), and Tumolo J. & Collins,
A (2001).
Aging Faculty Workforce
The primary factor contributing to the
acuity of the faculty shortage situation
is that we have an aging faculty workforce
that is rapidly approaching retirement
and a dwindling pool of younger faculty
for replacement.
AACN conducts a survey of faculty in
baccalaureate and higher degree granting
schools of nursing each fall. In academic
year 2001-2002, there were 9,767 full-time
nurse faculty in 542 of 678 institutions,
for an overall response rate of 80%. The
mean age for doctorally prepared professors,
associate professor, and assistant professors
was 56.2, 53.8, and 50.4 years respectively,
with a range of 28-78 years; the mean
for master's prepared faculty was 48.7
years (Berlin, Stennett, & Bednash,
2002b; AACN, 2002). Thanks to the AACN's
foresight, we began collecting faculty
age data in 1993. Like the overall nursing
workforce, the mean age of faculty has
increased steadily, going from 49.7 years
in 1993 to 52.2 in 2001 for doctoral faculty
(Figure I) and 46 to 48.5 for master's
faculty (AACN, 1993-2001).
Figure 1. Mean age of full-time doctorally
prepared nurse faculty, 1993-2001.
[D]
Age data not collected in 1996; midpoint
of ‘95 and ‘97 used.
Source: American Association of
Colleges of Nursing, 1993-2001. Dr. Linda Berlin, AACN's Director of
Research and Data Services and her colleague,
Dr. Karen Sechrist, a principal of Berlin
Sechrist Associates and project director
of the California Strategic Planning Committee
for Nursing, used our faculty age data
to model retirement projections for faculty
age 62 and younger. Since the paper is
in press and will appear in the March/April
issue of Nursing Outlook, I am
not at liberty to discuss all the findings.
However, I can tell you that their projections
of the number of faculty eligible to retire
each year and the modal year that most
people will reach retirement age are very
sobering (Berlin & Sechrist, 2002).
In conjunction with the change in mean
age, the proportion of doctorally prepared
faculty age 50 and over increased from
50.7 percent in 1993 to 70.3 percent in
2001 (Figure 2) (AACN, 1993-2001).
Figure 2. Percent of doctorally prepared
faculty age 50 and over and under 50,
1993-2001.
[D]
Source: American Association of
Colleges of Nursing, 1993-2001.
The percentage of doctorally prepared
faculty by age categories is striking.
From 1993-2001 there was a 17.3 percent
decline in the 36-45 age group and a 13.4
percent increase in the 56-65 group (Figure
3) (AACN, 1993-2001). What has happened
here? We have both retained and hired
older faculty, while younger faculty are
leaving academia.
Figure 3. Percent of doctorally prepared
full-time faculty in each age category,
1993-2001.
[D]
Source: American Association of
Colleges of Nursing, 1993-2001.
Departure from
Academia
The decline in the 36-45 year category
is particularly disturbing. Certainly
advancement to the next age category accounts
for some of the decrease, but departure
from academic is a major factor. AACN
data on employment commitments of doctoral
graduates were last collected in 1999.
Approximately 25% of graduates planned
to work in settings other than schools
of nursing (Berlin & Bednash, 2000).
This finding was supported by data from
three additional sources. Special runs
from the Survey of Earned Doctorates indicted
that over time the percent of nursing
doctoral recipients planning non-academic
careers increased and teaching as a primary
employment activity decreased—both
by approximately 11% (National Opinion
Research Center, 2001). Likewise, the
National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses
databases estimated that in 1992, 1996,
and 2000 the proportion of nurses with
doctorates in nursing teaching in baccalaureate
and graduate programs showed steady declines—from
68% in 1992 to 49% in 2000 (Division of
Nursing, 2001). Lastly, 1994 AACN data
on faculty resignations in the 36-45 year
age category indicated that although the
majority left to accept other nursing
faculty positions, 22% left academia to
assume positions such as nursing service,
private sector, or private practice positions
(AACN, 1994).
Diminishing
Pipeline of Doctoral Enrollees and Graduates
What is happening in doctoral programs
that should be a primary pipeline for
future faculty? In the fall of 2001, there
were 3,070 enrollees in 79 doctoral programs
in nursing; 59.1 percent were part-time
students. There were 394 doctoral graduates
from August 1, 2000 to July 31, 2001,
a decrease of 11.1 percent from 1999-2000.
Graduates represent only 12.8 percent
of enrollees, a function of more part-time
than full-time students (Berlin, Stennett,
& Bednash, 2002a).
Let's look at trends in enrollments
and graduations (Figure 4). Five-year
trend data in the same 74 schools reporting
data each year to AACN from 1997-2001
showed an average increase of 43 doctoral
students per year. The pattern of graduations
is random with an average decrease of
five graduates per year (Berlin, Stennett,
& Bednash, 2002a).
Figure 4. Five-Year Doctoral Enrollment
and Graduation Changes in the Same 74
Schools, 1997–2001.
[D]
 [D]
Source: Berlin LE, Stennett J, Bednash,
GD. (2002). 2001-2002 Enrollment and
Graduations in Baccalaureate and Graduate
Programs in Nursing. Washington, DC: AACN.
1 Joint, cooperative, or collaborative
programs are counted as one program.
2 There were 74 programs in 1999. One
school did not report.
Source: American Association of
Colleges of Nursing, 1990-2001.
Time to Degree
and Age of Doctoral Recipients
I think that the information on time
to doctoral degree and the age upon degree
completion is very startling. In nursing,
the time to completion of the doctoral
degree from first enrollment in a master's
program was almost 16 years (15.9), compared
to 8.5 years for other fields (National
Opinion Research Center, 2001). In our
communications with people in other disciplines,
we were told that by the late 30's and
early 40's, academicians are making significant
contributions to their respective fields.
This is a very different perspective as
if we enroll people in a master's program
at age 40 we think we are making progress!
In fact, we just sat on a review panel
together, did we not, looking at applications
for a predoctoral fellowship program?
There were a number of candidates in their
mid to late 50s! One must question what
kind of a career trajectory individuals
can have at that age, given that the mean
age of retirement for nursing faculty
is 62.5 (AACN, 1993 &1994).
Another statistic of concern is the
time to completion of the doctorate. From
1999-2000, the mean number of years registered
in a doctoral program was 8.3 years for
nursing graduates compared to 6.8 years
for all research doctoral awardees (National
Opinion Research Center, 2001).
The age distribution of doctoral graduates
should not be surprising, in light of
the above statistics. Of the 365 recipients
of nursing doctoral degrees in 1999 who
reported age, the median age was 46.2
years. Almost half of all graduates (48.8%)
were between the ages of 45 and 54 years;
12 percent were older than 55 years, and
only 25 (6.8%) were under 35. In comparison,
the median age of all research doctoral
awardees in the US in 1999 was 33.7 years
(National Opinion Research Center, 2001).
Baccalaureate
and Master's Pipeline
When evaluating the pipeline for doctoral
preparation, trends in baccalaureate and
master's programs must also be considered.
After a six-year decline in baccalaureate
enrollment, 2001 marked a 3.7 percent
increase in the number of enrollees (Berlin,
Stennett, & Bednash 2002a). Although
there was a 3.7 percent increase in enrollees
this year, there has been an average decrease
of 1,500 baccalaureate graduates for the
past five years; and graduations will
continue to decline each year until the
2001 enrollees graduate (Berlin, Stennett,
& Bednash, 2002a). Despite the modest
increase in enrollees this year, we have
21 percent fewer students than we had
six years ago.
Figure 5. Five-Year Generic (Entry-Level)
Baccalaureate Enrollment and Graduation
Changes in the Same 358 Schools, 1997–2001.
Source: Berlin LE, Stennett J,
Bednash, GD. (2002). 2001-2002 Enrollment
and Graduations in Baccalaureate and Graduate
Programs in Nursing. Washington, DC: AACN.
Another trend that people don't really
talk about is the decline in master's
programs. Master's enrollments and graduations
have declined steadily for the past five
years. Regression analysis of cohort data
from 280 schools reporting in 2001 indicated
an average decrease of 480 students and
155 graduates per year (Berlin, Stennett,
& Bednash, 2002a). This decline is
particularly disturbing given that master's
graduates are the source for 51 percent
of future faculty, as well as the source
for future doctoral students (Berlin,
Stennett, & Bednash, 2002a). However,
the shift of master's prepared faculty
to doctoral student and graduate may not
increase the number of new people in the
faculty pool since they are already functioning
in faculty roles.
Proposed Solutions
to the Shortage of Faculty
Well, the data summarize the story with
respect to dwindling numbers of faculty.
So, where do we go from here and what
are some solutions?
Enhance
Teaching Capabilities of Current Faculty
AACN has a strong role in faculty development
and has been very concerned about preparing
people for faculty roles. One of AACN's
initiatives that is being developed is
Education Scholar, which is a series of
six web-based programs to prepare faculty
to become expert teachers. We are also
in the process of developing a statement
about the projected faculty shortage and
the kinds of competencies that faculty
should possess.
Figure 6. Five-Year Master's Enrollment
and Graduation Changes in the Same 280
Schools, 1997–2001.
Encourage Part-Time
Opportunities for Retired Faculty
Most nursing faculty members retire at
62.5 years (AACN, 1993 & 1994). Many
faculty approaching retirement would like
to continue teaching in some capacity,
but there are financial implications in
terms of social security and retirement
plans. We need to be creative about ways
to retain these individuals, such as phased
retirement and redesign of workload.
Expand Capacity
A number of AACN-member schools have
implemented creative approaches to expanding
capacity through education-practice partnerships
with the clinical service environment
to use expert clinicians in the practice
environment to expand faculty capacity.
One of AACN's goals is to revitalize a
capitation program which would allow schools
to expand enrollment capacity by providing
financial resources to expand facilities,
hire additional staff and faculty at more
competitive salaries, and to forge additional
education-practice partnerships.
Shorten
the Time Between Undergraduate and Graduate
Study and Encourage Full-Time Study
We as a profession need to decide about
the best way to move people along the
faculty pipeline. This will involve re-examination
of some of our historic trends. If baccalaureate
graduates are the pipeline for future
faculty, we need to very carefully consider
whether the custom of requiring graduates
to have considerable practice experience
before they are admitted to a master's
programs should continue. By the time
master's study is considered, many individuals
have other responsibilities and seek master's
study on a part-time basis, thus prolonging
degree completion to about six years,
when it should be two years at the maximum.
Therefore, it is imperative that baccalaureate
students understand that the next step
to enhance their career is by moving directly
to full-time graduate-level study. In
fact, a number of AACN-member schools
have initiated scholars programs where
promising students are mentored early
to help them make the transition immediately
to graduate education.
There are also 29 AACN-member schools
that have initiated baccalaureate-to-doctoral
programs and there are seven more being
planned (Berlin, Stennett, & Bednash,
2002a). The goal of these programs is
to move promising baccalaureate graduates
immediately into doctoral study so we
can transition them into a long-term career
as scientists, researchers, and teachers.
Second Degree
Programs
An innovative approach to nursing education
that is gaining momentum is the accelerated
degree program for non-nursing graduates.
Offered at both the baccalaureate and
master's degree levels, these programs
build on previous learning experiences
and transition individuals with undergraduate
or graduate degrees in other disciplines
into nursing. Though these programs are
not new, they have proliferated over the
several years. In 1990, there were 31
baccalaureate and 12 master's programs
designed for nonnursing college graduates
(Bednash, Berlin, & Haux, 1991). By
fall 2001, there were 84 baccalaureate
and 24 master's programs in operation
(Berlin, Stennett, & Bednash, 2002a).
Graduates from second degree programs
are prized by nurse employers who value
the skill and perspective these graduates
bring to the workplace.
Summary
Thank you for this opportunity to present
information from AACN's extensive national
database on nursing education programs
and other national data sources to quantify
the shortage of doctorally prepared nursing
faculty and to summarize trends about
the future faculty pipeline. Although
the current shortage of faculty is very
serious, AACN is working diligently to
alleviate the situation via its major
short- and long-term strategies and initiatives.
List of References
- American Association of Colleges of
Nursing. (1993- 2001). Faculty age data
(unpublished data). Washington, DC:
American Association of Colleges of
Nursing.
- American Association of Colleges of
Nursing. (1993 &1994). Faculty resignations
and retirements (unpub lished data).
Washington, DC: American Association
of Colleges of Nursing.
- American Association of Colleges of
Nursing. (1994). Faculty resignations
and retirements (unpublished data).
Washington, DC: American Association
of Colleges of Nursing.
- American Association of Colleges of
Nursing. (2000). Special survey on vacant
faculty positions (Unpublished Data).
Washington, DC: American Association
of Colleges of Nursing.
- Bedash, G.D., Berlin, L.E., Haux,
S. (1991). 1990- 1991 enrollment
and graduations in baccalaureate and
graduate programs in nursing. Washington,
DC: American Association of Colleges
of Nursing.
- Berlin, L.E. & Bednash, G.D. (2000).
1999-2000 enrollment and graduations
in baccalaureate and graduate programs
in nursing. Washington, DC: American
Association of Colleges of Nursing.
- Berlin, L.E., Bednash, G.D., &
Stennett, J. (2001). 2000-2001 enrollment
and graduations in baccalaureate and
graduate programs in nursing. Washington,
DC: American Association of Colleges
of Nursing.
- Berlin, L.E. & Sechrist, K.R.
(2002a). The shortage of doctorally
prepared nursing faculty: a dire situation.
Nursing Outlook, 50 (2), 50-56.
- Berlin, L.E., Stennett, J., &
Bednash, G.D. (2002a). 2001-2002 enrollment
and graduations in baccalaureate and
graduate programs in nursing. Washington,
DC: American Association of Colleges
of Nursing.
- Berlin, L.E., Stennett, J., &
Bednash, G.D. (2002b). 2001-2002
salaries of instructional and administrative
nursing faculty in baccalaureate and
graduate programs in nursing. Washington,
DC: American Association of Colleges
of Nursing.
- American Association of Colleges of
Nursing. (1993 &1994). Faculty resignations
and retirements (unpub lished data).
Washington, DC: American Association
of Colleges of Nursing.
- Division of Nursing, Bureau of Health
Professions, HRSA. (2001). The registered
nurse population: national sample survey
of registered nurses (unpub lished
special reports generated for the American
Association of Colleges of Nursing).
- National Opinion Research Center.
(2001). Survey of earned doctorates.
(Unpublished special reports gen erated
for the American Association of Colleges
of Nursing). Chicago, IL: National Opinion
Research Center.
- Tumolo, J. & Collins, A. (2001).
Results of the 2002 national salary
survey of nurse practitioners. ADVANCE
for Nurse Practitioners. King of Prussia,
PA: ADVANCE for Nurse Practitioners.
Available from: URL: http://www.advancefornp.com/npsal
surv01.html
- Salary.Com. (March 2002). Search conducted
for nursing salaries. Available from:
URL: http://www.salary.com
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