Surviving the tsunami of an ageing academic workforce: Mentorship for the next generation

The Australian nursing academic workforce is undergoing a significant demographic shift, characterised by accelerated retirement and departure of senior academics. This trend threatens continuity of mentorship, academic leadership, and institutional knowledge, with potential implications for early- and mid-career nurse academics.

To explore nurse academics' lived experiences of senior mentorship loss and to examine perceived impacts on induction, workload, role clarity, succession planning, and resilience within a regional university context.

A qualitative study informed by a hermeneutic phenomenological orientation, an interpretive approach concerned with understanding meaning derived from lived experience.

Three face-to-face focus groups were conducted with early- and mid-career nurse academics (3 groups; N = 15; n = 5 per group) at a regional Australian university. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis following Braun and Clarke's six-phase analytic process to identify shared patterns of meaning across participants' accounts.

Five themes were identified: (1) Loss of Institutional Knowledge and Mentorship; (2) Inadequate Induction and Orientation Processes; (3) Workload Intensification and Role Ambiguity Following Senior Academic Loss; (4) Organisational Gaps in Succession Planning and Communication; and (5) Strategies for Recovery, Retention, and Resilience. Participants described emotional and professional strain associated with mentorship voids, unclear expectations, increased invisible workload, and inconsistent organisational responses during workforce transition.

The findings underscore mentorship as a critical element of academic sustainability and highlight limitations in existing induction, workload, and knowledge-transfer systems during periods of senior workforce attrition. Strengthening formalised and integrated mentorship and succession-support mechanisms may assist nursing education leaders to enhance retention, professional identity, and workforce resilience.