Addressing the Nursing Faculty: Retention Strategies

Nursing faculty turnover is increasingly a concern within nursing educational programs. The continuing nursing shortage has placed increased pressure on public and private schools to educate and graduate more nurses to meet the increasing demand. Evolving outcome competencies for new graduates and pressure to achieve high passing rates on NCLEX examinations is an added stressor. Thus the requirement for ongoing curriculum reform, student success, high workloads, and economic challenges, combined with quality outcomes create the need for supportive campus environments.

Review of Literature
There has been limited assessment of nursing faculty retention/turnover. A 2006 study of two-year community colleges, Rosser and Townsend (2006) found faculty most likely to leave their position were dissatisfied with their job. Factors contributing to job dissatisfaction were low salaries, lack of clarity and job expectations, and high workloads. In another study of Iowa community colleges Van Ast (1999) found poor leadership as a significant factor contributing to faculty dissatisfaction. These findings are congruent with those of Martin (2006), Medley and Rochelle (1995), and Cohen and Cohen (1983) that support the hypothesis linking leadership practices of supervisors with faculty satisfaction.

Beverly Kate and Sharon Jordan-Evans (2009) in their book Love ‘ EM or Lose ‘ EM: Getting Good People to Stay provide insightful thoughts on the critical need to retain a company’s best talent. Competent leaders and managers are the heart and soul of any school of nursing. Schools need their best employees to choose to stay with them as our sister schools would gladly hire them. Our nursing leadership has more influence and control in retaining our top nursing academic leaders and nursing faculty than anyone.

A 2011 research publication by Gormley, specifically addressed nursing faculty turnover and confirmed earlier findings. Specifically, if nurse faculty has unsatisfactory working relationships with their academic leader and other campus leadership, they are more likely to leave the organization. Other factors contributing to faculty dissatisfaction are work expectations and disagreements related to academic curriculum and related standards.

Women faculty members tend to have a higher turnover rate then their men counter parts. The increased turnover may be contributed to family obligations, spousal transfers, heavier workloads particularly related to student advising and excessive teaching assignments. Pay is also frequently lower for women when compared to men counterparts (Honeyman and Summers, 1994). Given over 90% of our nursing faculty members are women this finding is even more significant for nursing.

Florida and Texas Nursing Faculty Turnover

Published data that documents actual nursing faculty turnover is limited. The Florida and Texas Centers for Nursing have recent published data on faculty turnover in their respective states. In Florida, for the academic year 2009 – 2010 PN faculty turnover rates (75% percentile quartile) was 33.3% for PN programs and 15.8% for associate degree. The median rate (50% percentile quartile) for PN programs was 11.9% and 5.9% for AD. The median for all programs including BSN was 10.4%. There was no separate data related to career college faculty turnover (Florida Nursing Education and Nurse Faculty Supply and Demand).

In contrast, during the academic year 2009 – 2010 the Texas Nursing Workforce studies report that the faculty turnover rate in practical nurse programs was 23.3%. For career schools the turnover rate was 41.1%. Overall the faculty turnover in metropolitan areas was 25%. The professional nursing faculty turnover rate was 12.3%. Associate degree programs reported a turnover rate of 13.5% (Texas Center for Nursing Workforce Studies). The costs of corporate and faculty turnover go beyond the financial costs of hiring someone new, orienting them, and having them become productive employees.

Turnover has the potential to impact negatively, the quality of corporate leadership to move our vision forward. In addition, nursing faculty turnover may lead to poor student outcomes and decreased student satisfaction. The research maintains that efforts by campus leaders to create a positive and supportive work environment may lead to a decrease in faculty turnover (Klien and Takeda-Tinker, 2009: Gormley and Kennerly, 2011).

Limited turnover in campus based nursing positions may in some case be necessary and; when properly managed, allows the removal of employees whose performance is marginal. New hires may bring to the table renewed energy and positive actions to move the vision, goals and objectives of the School of Nursing and campus schools forward. Dysfunctional leadership is probably the most serious cancer against which as schools we must be most vigilant. The most critical variable that can impact the loss of a Dean and faculty is campus leadership (Gormley and Kennerly, 2011).

It is critical that nursing faculty and Dean be provided mentoring associated with their various academic roles. Strategies and leadership behavior that is collaborative, supports collegiality, and positive working relationships with other corporate team members may lead to improved retention of new and experienced nursing faculty and nursing academic leaders.

Baby Boomer and Generation X

Another issue of considerable importance is the generation gap that may exist between baby boomers and generation X campus leadership and nursing faculty. These groups may have different set of expectations. Baby boomers are individuals born between 1946 and 1964 while generation X were born between 1965 and 1976. The average age of nursing faculty “According to AACN's report on 2010-2011 Salaries of Instructional and Administrative Nursing Faculty in Baccalaureate and Graduate Programs in Nursing, the average ages of doctorally-prepared nurse faculty holding the ranks of professor, associate professor, and assistant professor were 60.5, 57.1, and 51.5 years, respectively.” This place the majority of our nurses and academic leaders on the cusp of between boomer and generation X.

The research shows that each group needs leadership and management considerations that are somewhat different from each other. Boomers typically thrive on public and private recognition. They need to have campus leadership listen to their ideas. They are usually more individually focused and may need to be coached to understand how a team’s efforts may also support individual recognition. They are the founders of the term “workaholic” and seek promotion, status, and monetary rewards. Restrictive rules and regulations are counterproductive with this group of employees. They most likely comprise schools of nursing most loyal employees and since many are near retirement they need special incentives to keep them within the school (Managing Baby Boomers in the Work Force; Russell – Managing across the generation).

Generation X has grown up being comfortable with technology and its use. Unlike the baby boomers these employees are more loyal to individuals within the school then to nursing school in general. They are more likely to leave the nursing school when it is no longer providing: a) financial stability; b) growth opportunities; and c) a supportive mentoring and growth environment. Generation X thrives on mentoring/coaching and on being provided the opportunity to have flexibility in completing their job requirements. They are more responsive when their entrepreneurial spirit can be tapped. Family and life outside of the business are important.  Thus, they are less likely to be satisfied with a job that has heavy work demands (Ronayne, 2007; Generation X in the Work Force). It is critical that school of nursing leadership understand that generation clashes can lead to unwanted nursing faculty and nursing academic leader turnover. It is imperative, particularly when younger generate Xrs are managing baby boomers, that they have an understanding of the boomer leadership requirements. Any nursing team member who feels he/she may not “fit in” the school milieu is at risk of leaving.

Assessment Strategies

“One of my key faculty members yesterday gave me notice she is leaving. I have at least one more faculty who seems to have already retired on the job. I now understand that as a manager that I must continue to engage and strive to retain my key faculty members.” RA From Beverly Kate and Sharon Jordan-Evans (2009) Love ‘ EM or Lose ‘ EM: Getting Good People has created a Retention/Engagement Index: A Manager’s Self Test. This assessment addresses the main theme of each chapter in their book. Please answer honestly and ask yourself if you hold these beliefs about managing others. It is impossible to end up with a no for all 26 questions. See their book for the table and more details related to operationalizing their suggestions.

Conclusion

The literature review nursing turnover data reveal that (given the limitation on our ability to accurately calculate the turnover rate) may lead to poor student outcomes and increase in delivery costs. Thus there is an opportunity to improve retention. The research and other published reports demonstrate that a primary driver of nursing faculty and nursing academic leader retention is supportive leadership attuned to generational related issues. To create such an environment that fosters retention requires, in some cases, new knowledge and attention to management and leadership behaviors by our nursing deans as well as campus leaders.

The demand for nursing faculty and seasoned academic nursing leaders has never been greater. The shortage of these professionals is projected to continue to grow as many educators and academic leaders retire. Fiscal pressure to operate efficiently is understandable. However, without an experienced and stable nursing faculty group and capable leaders to direct them we may be at risk for lower standards which eventually may result in fewer student demands for our programs. Thus, short term gains need to be carefully assessed against their impact on long term outcomes. Fortunately, there is a series of recommendations that when implemented have the potential of contributing to an improved retention rate for our nursing faculty and nursing academic leaders. Many of the following recommendations may be implemented at limited costs. Unknown of course are what are other factors that might impact retention and need to be addressed.

Recommendations

1. Immediate implementation of the Kaye and Beverly (2009) questions designed to ask our key nursing faculty, “What Keeps Them at Your School”. The process involves the sending each faculty member an invitation that includes the following:

You Are Invited to Attend The next step in your continued development. You make a difference and I value your contributions. Let’s discuss some things that are important to you and me.

What will keep you here?
What might entice you away?
What is most energizing about your work?
Are we fully utilizing your talents?
What is inhibiting your success?
What can I do differently to best assist you?

These series of questions will create a dialogue with the Dean. The content is the Dean telling his/her faculty how important they are to the School of Nursing and how important it is that they stay. Based on careful listening to their answers, the Dean will need to work in collaboration with the others to address any responses of concern.

2. When hiring campus academic leaders insure those employed have leadership traits supportive of creating high levels of job satisfaction among faculty including nursing academic leaders. Interviews with applicants should include questions related to leadership style, experience in working with professionals from high demand professions, openness to shared governance, decentralized budget process which allows the Dean to manage their budgets within certain prescribed parameters, etc.

3. Include in annual performance goals the creation of school of nursing faculty retention goals. Such goals need to be accompanied by significant staff development opportunities to enhance campus leadership’s competency in managing baby boomer, generation X and to a lesser extent generation Y (born 1977 to 1998). To achieve success will require significant coaching and educational offerings to insure nursing leadership have the necessary competencies to manage the nursing faculty workforce.

4. Include the creation of a school of nursing retention committee whose members collaborate to insure the working environment is congruent with school’s values and fosters retention. Simple suggestions such as those found in Love ‘ EM or Lose ‘EM: Getting Good People to Stay (Kaye and Jordan-Evans, 2008) can be a focus of campus retention. Dean’s should consider the recommendations created from the school based retention activities for implementation. For those beyond the scope of control for the school of nursing the Dean should forward such to upper administration for consideration.

5. Insure a faculty competency based orientation that includes both a campus and School of Nursing component. 6. Implement the Retention/Engagement Index: A Manager’s Self Test (Kaye and Beverly, 2009) and complete the recommended follow-ups. Work on the yes responses and attempt one or two strategies to address such. Get feedback as you try something different. Reward yourself and choose again when you have successfully implemented a new retention/engagement strategy. Identify your top three employees and do a stay interview with them and find out how what matters to them most. Design your plan and stay with it. If overwhelmed with the 26 items then figure out “one thing” that is essential to do. Efforts to improve the quality of faculty life and addressing issues impacting retention should be dealt with to potentially reduce turnover and improve faculty satisfaction.

References
2010-2011 Salaries of Instructional and Administrative Nursing Faculty in Baccalaureate and Graduate Programs in Nursing, Retrieved from the Internet on November 14, 2011. http://www.aacn.nche.edu/media-relations/fact-sheets/nursing-faculty-shortage

Florida Nursing Education and Nurse Faculty Supply and Demand: 2010 Survey Results Retrieved from the Internet on August 11, 2011 http://www.flcenterfornursing.org/files/2011_Education_Report.pdf

Generation X in the Work Force. Wiley Manager.com Retrieved from the Internet on August 15, 2011. http://www.wilymanager.com/generation-x-in-the-workplace/

Gormley, D, Kennerly, S. (2011). Predictors of turnover intention in nurse faculty. Journal of Nursing Education. 50(4): 190-6.

Honeyman, D. S., & Summers, S. R. (1994). Faculty turnover: An analysis by rank, gender, ethnicity and reason. Proceedings of the National Conference on Successful College Teaching.

Klien, J. and Takeda-Tinker, B. (2009). The Impact of Leadership on Community College Faculty Job Satisfaction. 7(2). Retrieved from Internet on August 11, 2011, http://www.academicleadership.org/article/the-impact-of-leadership-on-community-college-faculty-job-satisfaction

Kaye, B and Jordan-Evans, S. (2008). Love ’EM or Lose ‘ EM: Getting Good People to Stay. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.: San Francisco, CA. Managing Baby Boomers in the Work Force. Wiley Manager.com Retrieved from the Internet on August 15, 2011 http://www.wilymanager.com/manage-baby-boomers-in-the-workforce/

Posner, B. Z., & Kouzes, J. M. (2002). The leadership practices inventory: Theory and evidence behind the five practices of exemplary leaders. Retrieved November 14, 2011, from http://media.wiley.com/assets/463/74/lc_jb_appendix.pdf

Ronayne, P. (2007). Getting the “X” Into Senior Executive Service: Thoughts on Generation X and the Future of the SES. THOUGHT LEADER FORUM WASHINGTON, DC APRIL 10, 2007. Federal Executive Institute. Retrieve from the Internet on August 15, 2011 http://www.opm.gov/ses/executive_development/GettingXintoSES.pdf

Rosser, V., & Townsend, B. (2006). Determining public two-year college faculty's intent to leave: An empirical model. The Journal of Higher Education, 77(1), 124-147.

Russell, G. Managing across the generations. American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons. Retrieve from the Internet on August 15, 2011 http://www.aaos.org/news/aaosnow/aug09/managing3.asp

Spector, P. (2007). Job Satisfaction Survey Website. Retrieved from the Internet on August 11, 2011 http://chuma.cas.usf.edu/~spector/scales/jsspag.html

Texas Center for Nursing Workforce Studies, Nursing Education Program Information Survey 2009, Faculty Demographic Updates Vocational Nursing Programs. Retrieved from the Internet on August 11, 2011. http://www.docstoc.com/docs/82467093/

Faculty-Positions-in-Vocational-Nursing-Programs-Vacancy-and-Turnover-of-Faculty-in-Vocational-Nursing-Programs Texas Center for Nursing Workforce Studies, Nursing Education Program Information Survey 2010, Faculty Demographic Updates Professional Nursing Programs. Retrieved from Internet on August 11, 2011. http://www.dshs.state.tx.us/chs/cnws/2010_RN_Faculty_Demographics_F.pdf

Van Ast, J. (1999). Community college faculty: Making the paradigm shift. Community College Journal of Research and Practice (23), 559-579