2015-2024 trends in nursing faculty vacancies across the United States

Faculty vacancies across the United States have been a growing concern for the nursing education community over the past decade and have a significant impact on preparing the future nursing workforce.

The article outlines the full-time faculty vacancy rate, along with the top four critical issues and barriers related to full-time faculty recruitment and hiring encountered over the past decade.

Data from 2015 to 2024 were extracted from the annual reports of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing regarding faculty vacancy rates in the United States. The data on full-time faculty vacancy rates were reported in aggregate at the national and regional levels.

The 10-year national average full-time faculty vacancy rate from 2015 to 2024 was 7.64%. The Midwest and South had the lowest full-time faculty vacancy rates; the West and North Atlantic had the highest full-time faculty vacancy rates. Issues critical to faculty recruitment were noncompetitive salaries, finding faculty with the necessary teaching experience, finding faculty with the right specialty mix, and a limited pool of PhD prepared nurses in their geographical area. Barriers to hiring full time faculty were insufficient funds, administrative constraints, and inability to recruit qualified full-time faculty due to competition and unavailability.

The faculty shortages across the U.S. are a complex problem that require a multi-pronged approach. Strategic recommendations were proposed to include investments in better compensation and faculty development, development of a dashboard to demonstrate regional shortages, and innovative approaches to capture the contributions of other than full-time faculty.