Will BSN Students Consider a Future Nursing Faculty Role?

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education Research
• Faculty Workforce Development
• Social Cognitive Career Theory

Background:

• Impending nursing faculty shortage impacts the capacity to educate future nurses.
• Addressing the faculty shortage is critical for maintaining the nursing workforce.
• Baccalaureate nursing programs are key in developing the future nursing faculty pipeline.

Purpose of the Study:

• To determine the intent of baccalaureate nursing students to pursue a future nursing faculty role.
• To identify factors influencing nursing students' decisions to enter academia.
• To inform strategies for recruiting future nursing faculty.

Main Methods:

• Prospective correlational research design utilized.
• Survey administered to prelicensure Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) students.
• Social Cognitive Career Theory constructs guided the survey instrument.

Main Results:

• Twenty-five percent of surveyed students expressed intent to pursue a faculty role.
• Key predictors included nursing program type (OR=2.0), interest in faculty activities (OR=2.3), and outcome expectations (advantages OR=1.9; disadvantages OR=0.8).
• Previous teaching experience (OR=1.7) and encouragement (OR=1.5) were also significant predictors.

Conclusions:

• Exposing students to the nursing faculty role can increase interest.
• Providing teaching experiences and encouragement may motivate students towards faculty careers.
• Interventions targeting identified predictors can help bolster the future nursing faculty pipeline.