A National Survey Examining the Professional Work Life of Today's Nursing Faculty

Objective: To examine factors that influence faculty member's work life in order to provide a supportive environment for recruiting and retaining nursing faculty. Design: A cross-sectional non-experimental design incorporating correlation-based analyses gathered from a 45-item online survey. Setting: The survey gauged several aspects of the nurse faculty work life, including teaching competence, productivity, and organizational support. Participants: US nurse faculty employed at either a CCNE or NLNAC accredited nursing program. Methods: A stepwise linear regression analysis was conducted to ascertain which aspects of work life significantly predicted nurse faculty members' intent to stay or leave the faculty role. A one-way ANOVA examined whether faculty members' intent to stay or leave the faculty role varied as a function of generation. Results: Data from 808 useable surveys demonstrated that perceptions of administration's support for faculty improvement, perceptions of productivity, choice of pursuing a professional career in nursing, and the application of perceived teaching expertise significantly predicted faculty members' intent to stay or leave the faculty role. Moreover, generational membership influenced faculty members' intent to stay or leave the faculty role. Conclusions: Academic nurse administrators can positively affect the work life of their faculty and their intent to stay in the organization through support for the development of teaching and research roles with time and resources, recognition of faculty efforts, consideration of faculty needs from individual and generational perspectives, and targeted mentoring for career development. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd.