Career stage: the heterogeneity of nursing faculty

The purpose of this study was to examine attitudes of nursing faculty and determine if attitudinal differences did exist toward various facets of the work setting based on academic rank. This study also determined the effect of age on the aforementioned relationship. Nursing faculty currently teaching at public colleges and universities were randomly selected from school catalogues and asked to participate in the study. A total of 496 affirmative responses were received from the initial and follow-up mailing. However, 27 were either ineligible to participate or returned an incomplete Job Attitude Scale. The remaining 469 responses were utilized for the descriptive statistics. The results of a MANOVA (n = 421) indicate that there are statistically significant differences in attitudes toward various factors within the work setting based on academic rank. That significance remains even when age is controlled. Full professors were more concerned with being creative, having a good relationship with subordinates, personnel policies and status. Nursing faculty who were instructors and assistant professors were interested in receiving praise, having a competent supervisor, having a good relationship with peers and a secure job.