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.

Persons with Disability: Their Experiences as Standardized Patients in an Undergraduate Nursing Program.

This descriptive qualitative study examined experiences of standardized patients with disabilities (SPWDs) in an undergraduate nursing program through focus group and telephone interviews. Content analysis identified five themes: 1) desire to improve care for others, 2) opportunity to be productive again, 3) joy in seeing students learn, 4) desire for more feedback on performance, and 5) importance of having SPWDs assess accessibility of the facility. SPWDs participated to improve sensitivity of students to disability and appreciated having a voice in educating future nurses. They requested more feedback on their performance and identified accessibility issues in the state-of-the-art nursing school building.

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.

Family Caregivers' Attitudes and Perspectives About the Sexual and Reproductive Health of Women With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities: An Online Survey.

Although sexual and reproductive health is critically important for women with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), there is limited research elucidating the role of family caregivers in assisting women with IDD access sexual and reproductive health services and information. Understanding the family caregivers' attitudes and perspectives is essential to improving access to sexual and reproductive health services and information for women with IDD. A cross-sectional online survey of family caregivers of women with IDD was administered between June and October 2018. Quantitative analysis was conducted for closed-ended responses, and qualitative analysis was conducted for open-ended responses. The analytic sample included 132 family caregivers. Most participants were parents and reported being closely involved in their family member's access to sexual and reproductive health services and information. Although most participants expressed that sexual and reproductive health services and information are essential for women with IDD, qualitative analysis of participants' open-ended responses revealed both supportive and restrictive attitudes and perspectives on sexual and reproductive health services and information for women with IDD. Supportive attitudes and perspectives included (1) "knowledge is power;" (2) supported decision-making; and (3) protection against sexual abuse. Restrictive attitudes and perspectives included (1) dependent on the individual; (2) lack of autonomy; and (3) placing responsibility on disability. Greater attention from policymakers and practitioners to systems-level changes, including universal and accessible sexual education for women with IDD, supported decision-making, and sexual abuse prevention measures, are urgently needed.

Experiences of Women of Short Stature During the Perinatal Period.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the experiences of women of short stature, including women with dwarfism and osteogenesis imperfecta (OI), during the perinatal period. DESIGN: Qualitative descriptive. SETTING: Telephone interviews with women of short stature from across the United States. PARTICIPANTS: Nine women of short stature, including five with dwarfism and four with osteogenesis imperfecta, between the ages of 18 and 55 years who gave birth within the last 10 years. METHODS: We used reflexive thematic analysis to analyze interview data. RESULTS: Four themes represented the participants' experiences during maternity care: Clinicians' Lack of Knowledge, Sources of Information and EmotionalSupport, Clinical Considerations: Effects of Pregnancy and Disability, and Accessibility Barriers and Adaptations. Participants experienced respiratory difficulties and preterm birth. They expressed concerns regarding the lack of clinician knowledge and experience in administering epidural anesthesia to women of short stature and highlighted the important role of disability organizations in disseminating information about childbirth for women with disabilities. CONCLUSION: Childbearing women of short stature require disability-specific maternity care. Our findings highlight the need for disability education programs for nurse-midwives, nurses, physicians, and other clinicians who provide maternity care to women of short stature.

Qualitative Descriptive Study of Childbirth Educators' Perspectives on Prenatal Education for Women With Physical Disability.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the knowledge, experiences, and perceptions of childbirth educators about providing childbirth education to women with physical disability. DESIGN: Qualitative descriptive design. SETTING: Telephone interviews. PARTICIPANTS: Seventeen childbirth educators. METHODS: We used a semistructured interview guide to explore participants' knowledge, experiences, and perceptions of providing childbirth education to women with physical disability. We audio recorded, transcribed, and analyzed the interviews using content analysis. RESULTS: We identified four themes: Importance of Childbirth Education for All Women, Inadequate Knowledge About Physical Disability, Willingness to Learn About Physical Disability, and Misconceptions and Assumptions About Women With Physical Disability. CONCLUSION: Participants reported little knowledge about the needs of pregnant women with physical disability and limited experience with them in childbirth education classes. They reported eagerness to learn about disability and its effect on pregnancy to help provide meaningful education to women with physical disability. Childbirth educators need to develop and implement innovative approaches to reach women with physical disability, provide information relevant to their needs, and address the misconceptions and assumptions they may have about women with physical disability and pregnancy.

Innovative Approach to Address Disability Concepts and Standardized Patients With Disability in an Undergraduate Curriculum.

BACKGROUND: Despite a growing population of people with disabilities (PWD), health care professionals, including nurses, receive little educational preparation to provide health care to them. To address this issue in nursing education, the faculty of a school of nursing designed and implemented an innovative teaching strategy that can be adopted by other nursing programs and faculty. METHOD: A systematic plan was developed and implemented to integrate standardized patients with disabilities (SPWD) into an existing undergraduate nursing program. Steps included careful planning, review, and modification of existing simulation-based scenarios, obtaining buy-in of faculty across the curriculum, recruitment and training of PWD to be SPWD, and implementation of the project. RESULTS: The program in which all undergraduate nursing students have repeated contact with SPWD has been successfully implemented throughout the curriculum. CONCLUSION: The project addressed the multiple calls to improve the preparation of health care professionals to provide quality care to PWD. [J Nurs Educ. 2018;57(12):760-764.].

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.