Nursing Doctoral Faculty Perceptions Related to the Effect of Increasing Enrollments on Productivity.

Nursing faculty teaching in research and clinical doctoral programs participated in a national survey study to examine the impact of expanded doctoral enrollments on the doctoral faculty's scholarly productivity. They were invited to respond to an open-ended question soliciting information not already addressed in the survey. Results of the analysis are reported here. Findings corroborated the review of literature and results of the survey and focus groups that provided the basis for the survey's development. Current workloads may be unsustainable, jeopardizing the profession's response to Institute of Medicine recommendations.

Perceptions of academic administrators of the effect of involvement in doctoral programs on faculty members' research and work-life balance.

BACKGROUND: Support for research strongly predicts doctoral program faculty members' research productivity. Although academic administrators affect such support, their views of faculty members' use of support are unknown. PURPOSE: We examined academic administrators' perceptions of institutional support and their perceptions of the effects of teaching doctoral students on faculty members' scholarship productivity and work-life balance. METHODS: An online survey was completed by a random sample of 180 deans/directors of schools of nursing and doctoral programs directors. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, chi-square analysis, and analysis of variance. DISCUSSION: Deans and doctoral program directors viewed the level of productivity of program faculty as high to moderately high and unchanged since faculty started teaching doctoral students. Deans perceived better administrative research supports, productivity, and work-life balance of doctoral program faculty than did program directors. CONCLUSION: Findings indicate the need for greater administrative support for scholarship and mentoring given the changes in the composition of doctoral program faculty.

A profile of U.S. nursing faculty in research- and practice-focused doctoral education.

PURPOSE: This study, which is part of a larger project, was conducted to profile the nursing faculty in the United States teaching in PhD and DNP programs. DESIGN: This is a descriptive study. A sample of 554 nursing faculty who teach in PhD and DNP programs was recruited by email solicitation to represent all geographic regions of the United States. Data were collected from November 2013 through January 2014 using an online survey instrument. METHODS: The instrument was developed based on results of review of the literature and of focus groups of doctoral faculty (faculty teaching in doctoral programs) to ascertain characteristics of faculty teaching in doctoral programs and of the schools in which they teach. Frequencies and descriptive statistics are reported. FINDINGS: Growth in DNP programs has outpaced growth in PhD programs, and DNP graduates have moved into doctoral education in greater numbers than PhD graduates. DNP faculty report less prior experience and current productivity scholarship than faculty in PhD programs only or both types of programs. CONCLUSIONS: Strategies are needed to ensure that doctoral programs are staffed by faculty who are prepared for doctoral education and the development of nursing science. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: The Institute of Medicine has recommended doubling the number of doctorally prepared nurses in the United States by 2020 to ensure that sufficient numbers of faculty are available to prepare the nursing labor force that is needed for delivery of healthcare services. Nurse scientists are needed to contribute to improvement in patient care quality and safety, and practice leaders are needed to facilitate the translation of research into safe, high-quality, and cost-effective care. The landscape of doctoral education in nursing is rapidly changing.

Work-life balance of nursing faculty in research- and practice-focused doctoral programs.

OBJECTIVES: The growing shortage of nursing faculty and the need for faculty to teach doctoral students to address the shortage call for examination of factors that may contribute to the shortage, including those that are potentially modifiable, including work-life balance.This descriptive study examined work-life balance of a national sample of nursing faculty teaching in research-focused and practice-focused doctoral programs. METHODS: Data were collected through an online survey of 554 doctoral program faculty members to identify their perceptions of work-life balance and predictors of work-life balance. RESULTS: Work-life balance scores indicated better work-life balance than expected. Factors associated with good work-life balance included higher academic rank, having tenure, older age, years in education, current faculty position, and no involvement in clinical practice. Current faculty position was the best predictor of work-life balance. CONCLUSIONS: Although work-life balance was viewed positively by study participants, efforts are needed to strengthen factors related to positive work/life in view of the increasing workload of doctoral faculty as the numbers of doctoral students increase and the number of seasoned faculty decrease with anticipated waves of retirements.

Challenges to research productivity of doctoral program nursing faculty.

The Institute of Medicine, responding to a national health care crisis and related nursing labor force concerns, has called for an increase in the proportion of registered nurses with baccalaureate or higher degrees to 80% and a doubling of the number of nurses with doctorates by 2020. Simultaneously, large numbers of senior faculty are starting to retire, whereas the movement of doctorally prepared nurses into academia is insufficient to replace them. Issues associated with the efforts of nursing programs to increase their capacity to respond to the Institute of Medicine's recommendations, particularly the effect on scholarly productivity among nursing faculty in doctoral programs, are examined in this article. Creative strategies for promoting scholarly productivity among doctoral program faculty are identified.

Nursing Students' Attitudes Toward Nursing Education Research and Participation in Pedagogical Research.

BACKGROUND: Nursing students overall have positive attitudes toward research, but no studies have explored students' attitudes toward education research or pedagogical research participation. PURPOSE: The purposes of this study were to explore nursing students' attitudes toward research in general, education research, and participation as subjects in pedagogical research; describe the relationships among these attitudes; and identify associated factors. METHODS: A mixed-methods, descriptive, cross-sectional study design was used. RESULTS: Nursing students' (N = 195) attitudes about research in general, education research, and participation in pedagogical research were predominantly positive and directly correlated. Age was significantly associated with attitudes about education research and research participation, whereas program year was associated only with research participation. The most prevalent barrier to research participation was time. CONCLUSIONS: Findings provide valuable insight about nursing students' attitudes toward research that may be used to design protocols to enhance student participation in pedagogical research.

Psychometric Analysis of the Work/Life Balance Self-Assessment Scale.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: This study investigated the psychometric properties of the Work/Life Balance Self-Assessment scale among nurse faculty involved in doctoral education. METHODS: A national random sample of 554 respondents completed the Work/Life Balance Self-Assessment scale, which addresses 3 factors: work interference with personal life (WIPL), personal life interference with work (PLIW), and work/personal life enhancement (WPLE). RESULTS: A principal components analysis with varimax rotation revealed 3 internally consistent aspects of work-life balance, explaining 40.5% of the variance. The Cronbach's alpha coefficients for reliability of the scale were .88 for the total scale and for the subscales, .93 (WIPL), .85 (PLIW), and .69 (WPLE). CONCLUSION: The Work/Life Balance Self-Assessment scale appears to be a reliable and valid instrument to examine work-life balance among nurse faculty.

Assessment of the Impact of Teaching Demands on Research Productivity Among Doctoral Nursing Program Faculty.

This article reports the findings of a study that examined the research and scholarship productivity of doctorally prepared nursing faculty teaching and mentoring doctoral students and the conflicting demands on them to maintain programs of research and scholarship. The specific aims were to (a) examine the research productivity and scholarship of faculty members teaching in doctoral programs and mentoring doctoral students to examine the perceived effectiveness of existing institutional mechanisms to support scholarship, (b) explore institutional features and personal practices used by doctoral program faculty to develop and maintain research and scholarship productivity, and (c) analyze predictors of scholarship productivity. Data were collected via an on-line researcher-developed survey that examined doctoral faculty roles/responsibilities and their relationship to their scholarly productivity, overall research productivity, and institutional features and personal practices to support research/scholarship activities. Survey respondents reported spending a large amount of time engaged in research-related activities with 58.9% (n = 326) spending anywhere from 6 to 20 hours per week conducting research, writing research-based papers, giving presentations, grant writing, or conducting evidence-based improvement projects. Scholar productivity among the respondents was robust. Personal practices that most strongly supported faculty members' scholarship productivity were the belief that engaging in scholarship made them better teachers and the personal gratification in experiencing doctoral students' successes. A multiple regression analysis conducted to determine predictors of productivity indicated that the strongest predictor was the average number of hours spent on research/scholarship-related activities, followed by time bought out from teaching and other responsibilities of the faculty role for research.

Nursing doctoral faculty perceptions of factors that affect their continued scholarship.

This focus group study was undertaken as part of a larger investigation of how the demand for increased production of nurses with doctorates affects doctoral faculty's scholarly productivity. This study provided a basis for development of the national survey questionnaire. Two focus groups that included 29 faculty teaching in doctor of philosophy and/or doctor of nursing practice programs took place at one of two national conferences. The focus group interviews were transcribed and content analyzed for the identification of themes; all members of the research team reached consensus. The three major themes were the demands of teaching, the importance of institutional structure and climate, and the sustainability of one's self, the institution, and the discipline. Participants identified strategies for enhancing scholarly productivity. Findings are limited by the small sample size and the voluntary participation of conference attendees. The strength of emotion that participants revealed underscores the need for nursing leaders to address the increasing academic expectations for faculty. If the profession does not address the needs of its current and future faculty, goals explicated by the Institute of Medicine in The Future of Nursing cannot be achieved, and the health of the nation will suffer.