Analysis of a Needs Assessment Survey to Develop an Online Resource Repository Supporting Nurse Anesthesia Educators.

BACKGROUND: Without highly qualified nurse anesthesia educators and administrators, the health care system will be threatened by the inadequate supply of certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNAs). PURPOSE: American Association of Nurse Anesthesiologists' Faculty Stabilization Task Force (FSTF) analyzed reasons for high faculty turnover and developed recommendations to support nurse anesthesia faculty and administrators. METHODS: A survey evaluated participants' current role, leadership development opportunities, mentorship experiences, and resource needs. RESULTS: Of 109 respondents, 87 (80%) were program administrators or assistant administrators with less than 5 years of experience in their role. Despite academic experience, 51% felt adequately prepared for their role. CONCLUSIONS: The FSTF provided 2 recommendations: to create a robust faculty development program for all faculty at all levels of CRNA education and a repository of information needed for program administrators and faculty to oversee and educate students in a high-quality CRNA program.

Adapting to Racial Trends in the U.S. Population.

Nurse leaders call for more diversity in nursing school students and faculty.

"He just teaches whatever he thinks is important": Analysis of comments in student evaluations of teaching.

Student evaluations of teaching are ubiquitous in higher education; however, most prior research has focused on the numeric ratings, with little systematic attention given to the qualitative comments. In this study, written comments were collected as part of the regular evaluation of a community health nursing course over four semesters. Taken as a whole, student comments were strikingly consistent and mostly negative. Students emphasized the authority of the textbook and framed the course as preparation for the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX). Instructor efforts to focus on critical analysis of social issues were met with confusion, suspicion, and resistance. Student comments were further analyzed in relation to 3 levels of discourse: the student/teacher level, the nursing-education level, and the social-historical level. For each level, the comments reveal problems, but not the ones suggested by a conventional reading of student evaluations. If students and teachers have conflicting expectations about goals and methods for learning, formal student evaluations may be less useful as a measure of teaching effectiveness. This study also raises troubling concerns about current practices in nursing pedagogy, particularly the emphasis on standardized testing and highly structured didactics, and the overlap between student evaluation systems and the technologies of neoliberalism.

New Faculty Orientation for Nurse Educators: Offerings and Needs.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to identify the common elements for new faculty orientation (NFO) programs and then replicate two previous studies regarding NFO offerings and needs. METHOD: Using a descriptive survey research design, a 40-item survey was developed based on Morin and colleagues' surveys and disseminated via the Qualtrics platform. The survey addressed nurse faculty orientation offerings and needs. RESULTS: Some form of orientation was offered to 61% of the respondents. Only 14% identified a person responsible for orienting new faculty to their nursing program, 15% said no one person was accountable, and 69% reported they did not know who was responsible. The top three categories to be included in an orientation program were educational environment, academic environment, and social milieu. CONCLUSION: NFO programs attended by nursing faculty may not be as comprehensive or effective as they could be. [J Nurs Educ. 2021;60(5):273-276.].

Nursing faculty shortage in Canada: A scoping review of contributing factors.

BACKGROUND: Strong nursing faculty is paramount to promote disciplinary leadership and to prepare future nurses for practice. Our understanding of the factors associated with or predictive of nurse faculty retention and/or turnover is lacking. PURPOSE: The aim of this review is to identify and synthesize the existing literature on factors contributing to nurse faculty shortage in Canada and implications on nursing practice. METHODS: A scoping review based on the Arskey and O'Malley's five stage framework for scoping reviews was undertaken. Utilizing the PRISMA protocol, a comprehensive and structured literature search was conducted in five databases of studies published in English. FINDINGS: Limited through search inclusion and relevance of research, nine studies out of 220 papers met the criteria for this review and were thematically analyzed. Identified themes were supply versus demand; employment conditions; organizational support; and personal factors. DISCUSSION: Impending retirement of faculty, unsupportive leadership, and stressful work environments were frequently reported as significant contributing factors to the faculty shortage. CONCLUSION: This scoping review provides insights into how Canada's schools of nursing could engage in grounded efforts to lessen nursing faculty shortage, both nationally and globally. We identified a gap in the literature that indicates that foundational work is needed to create context-specific solutions. The limited studies published in Canada suggest that this is a critical area for future research and funding.

Exploratory Factor Analysis of the Indonesian Version of the Clinical Learning Environment, Supervision, and Nurse Teacher Scale (CLES + T).

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The purpose of this article is to describe an evaluation of psychometric properties of the Indonesian version of the Clinical Learning Environment, Supervision, and Nurse Teacher (CLES + T) scale, a scale that measures nursing students' perceptions of their clinical learning environment. METHODS: The CLES + T was completed by 292 nursing students. Inter-item correlations, exploratory factor analysis, Cronbach's alpha, and evidence of validity were used to examine reliability and validity. RESULTS: Four factors were extracted that explained 58% of the variance. Cronbach alphas ranged from .86-.95. Wording to describe different titles of supervisors was unclear to some of the participants. CONCLUSION: The Indonesian version of the CLES + T is a reliable version. More research is needed to clarify some of the wording.

A study of statistics knowledge among nurse faculty in schools with research doctorate programs.

Statistics knowledge is essential for nursing faculty in both teaching and research roles. In the teaching role when discussing nursing research, nursing faculty are confronted with statistical concepts and statistical methods applications. Knowledge of fundamental statistical concepts is needed so that nursing faculty can understand and critically evaluate the literature. The purpose of this study was to assess nursing faculty knowledge of fundamental statistical concepts. A probability sample with a 7.7% response rate yielded participation from 164 nursing faculty from 26 accredited schools. Results showed that most faculty members (91.5%) read peer-reviewed health-related scientific journal articles. On average, nursing faculty answered 5.1 (SD = 1.6) out of 8 statistical knowledge questions correctly. Problematic concepts included randomization (43.3% correct), and interpreting a confidence interval (42.7%) and odds ratio (33.5%). The results of this study may be used to improve statistics education and training for future nursing faculty and strengthen scholarship for nursing faculty conducting research.

Assessment of Global Health Competence of Nursing Faculty in Prelicensure Programs.

BACKGROUND: Global Health is an emerging field that refers to the health and well-being of the world's population. It is crucial that the next generation of nurses is prepared as global health advocates. There is no prior research of self-assessed global health competencies among nursing faculty in U.S. prelicensure programs. The aim of this study was to determine the level of global health competencies (knowledge and skills) of nursing faculty in U.S. prelicensure programs. METHOD: Attendees at the National League for Nursing Education Summit completed the Global Health Competencies survey. RESULTS: Survey participants (N = 161) reported a 66.76% confidence in their knowledge of global health and 61.4% confidence in global health skills with patients from different backgrounds. Three areas of educational needs were identified: (a) the relationship between health and access to clean water, sanitation, and nutrition; (b) cultural competency; and (c) understanding the relationship between health and human rights. CONCLUSION: Nursing faculty participants identified several areas for improvement in their knowledge of global health issues. [J Nurs Educ. 2021;60(1):20-24.].

Failing to Fail When Disability Is a Factor.

BACKGROUND: Nursing faculty may be reluctant to fail students for a variety of reasons. Faculty may fear being viewed as discriminatory when failing nursing students with disabilities. PROBLEM: Schools of nursing may still be using technical standards that are outdated and noncompliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to determine eligibility for admission and may confuse essential functions with academic expectations. Lack of faculty awareness of the ADA may make faculty reluctant to fail nursing students with disabilities. APPROACH: All nursing students should be assessed based on whether-not how-they meet academic and clinical standards safely. Disability accommodations should not affect the standards that must be met. CONCLUSIONS: Faculty should base decisions on whether to assign failing grades to students on factors unrelated to a disability. Technical standards, when written correctly, should clarify whether inability or disability contributed to failure. Policies regarding failing should be clear, equitable, and accessible.

Affiliate Faculty in Nursing Clinical Education: Student and Faculty Perceptions.

BACKGROUND: Academic-practice relationships can be integral in advancing high-quality education for prelicensure nursing students. In a midwestern city, the academic health center and school of nursing developed the affiliate faculty model, a viable and sustainable model for clinical education. PURPOSE: This study explores the efficacy of the affiliate faculty model as reported by prelicensure nursing students and affiliate faculty over a 7-year period. METHODS: This study used a cross-sectional, descriptive survey design. An electronic survey using a mixed-methods approach was administered to nursing students and affiliate faculty. RESULTS: Seventy-two students and 25 affiliate faculty participated, agreeing that affiliate faculty prepared students to provide safe care and connect classroom to clinical. Themes included knowledge of the health system, support at the bedside, enjoyment of teaching, and creating "light bulb moments." CONCLUSIONS: The affiliate faculty model strengthens academic-practice partnerships while addressing the nursing faculty shortage.

Inconsistency in Faculty and Student Perceptions of DNP and PhD Leader Scholarly Activity.

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to quantify faculty and student perceptions of scholarly activities for doctor of nursing practice (DNP) and PhD leaders. BACKGROUND: The American Association of Colleges of Nursing describes DNP as a practice-focused degree and PhD as a research-focused degree. In 2016, the Council on Graduate Education for Administration in Nursing (now Association for Leadership Science in Nursing) published in the Journal of Nursing Administration sample practice objectives for DNP and research objectives for PhD leaders. METHODS: Using the published objectives, we surveyed faculty and students to quantify congruence with the publication and consistency within groups. The data informed intraprofessional education constructed using action research. RESULTS: There was low congruence between faculty and student responses with the article. PhD faculty had the least, and PhD students, the greatest, consistency in survey responses. CONCLUSIONS: Confusion exists within our faculty and students around differentiating PhD and DNP scholarly activities. Data supported need to clarify scholarly role boundaries through intraprofessional education.

Nurse Educators: Professional Quality of Life Related to Conditions of Work Effectiveness.

BACKGROUND: Professional quality of life (ProQoL) is the balance between compassion satisfaction (CS) and compassion fatigue (CF). The experience of CF results from secondary traumatic stress stemming from compassionate caregiving and burnout. PURPOSE: This study sought to identify the ProQoL of nurse educators and what conditions for work effectiveness affect this ProQoL. METHODS: An email survey link was sent to nurse educators from the northeastern region of the United States asking for participation. This included demographics, the ProQoL Version 5, and the Conditions for Work Effectiveness Questionnaire version II (CWEQ-II). RESULTS: The 211 nurse educators reported relatively high CS and relatively low burnout and secondary traumatic stress. When the measures of the CWEQ-II increased, so did their CS. In addition, as the measures of the CWEQ-II increased, their secondary traumatic stress and burnout decreased. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that conditions for work effectiveness such as access to opportunity, resources, information, support, and formal and informal power have a relationship to the nurse educator's ProQoL.

Nursing Faculty Perceptions Regarding Students With Physical Disabilities.

BACKGROUND: Students with physical disabilities continue to face barriers seeking entry into nursing programs even as the nursing profession advocates vigorously for the rights of these individuals. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to identify faculty perceptions that create barriers for students with physical disabilities to meet the requirements of a BSN education. METHODS: Nursing faculty (n = 111) completed an online survey about the ability of a student who uses a wheelchair for mobility to meet required outcomes. RESULTS: Participants believed students could meet the 14 cognitive and affective domain outcomes (88%-100%) for generalist practice. Their agreement that students could meet psychomotor domain outcomes was lower (66%-90%). Younger faculty expressed more positive perceptions. CONCLUSIONS: Using the psychomotor requirements of bedside nursing as the technical standard for nursing education is a barrier for students with physical disabilities. Faculty should expand their perceptions of the essentials of nursing education to create an inclusive environment.

Foreign nurse educators' lived experiences of incivility: The case for Botswana.

BACKGROUND: In light of current economic prosperity and subsequent attainment of upper-middle-income country status, Botswana attracted nurse educators from other African countries. Within this cross-cultural environment, anti-immigrant sentiments have catalysed incidents of incivility, affecting the quality of teaching and learning outcomes. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to explore experiences of incivility amongst foreign nurse educators and how it impacts their work and livelihood. METHOD: This study employed a qualitative approach, using interpretive phenomenology. In-depth interviews using a developed guide were conducted with 13 foreign nurse educators working as nurse educators in Botswana. Thematic analysis was conducted in accordance with interpretive phenomenology, where transcriptions were drafted after each interview. RESULTS: Three themes emerged from the study findings: hostile behaviour, discrimination and inequitable application of procedures and processes. Discrimination as a theme has two sub-themes, namely, workplace injustice and individual injustice. CONCLUSION: The study found that foreign nurse educators working in Botswana experience incivility. From the findings, the study strongly recommends application of equitable job opportunities to all employees, including foreign nurse educators who are employed to meet the shortage of nurse educators in Botswana. The researchers are of the opinion that the nurse educator shortage will persist in Botswana, partly because of the nursing profession rendered unattractive by hostile social interactions amongst nurse educators' exclusion of foreign nurses from benefits enjoyed by local nurse educators, workplace injustice targeting foreign nurse educators, as well as inequitable application of policies and processes that affect foreign nurse educators.

Houser Gear Conceptual Model for New Nurse Educators.

This article presents a conceptual model explaining classroom dynamics, to guide novice nurse educators who are transitioning from clinical practice to academia. A critical review using Fawcett's framework for analysis and evaluation of nursing models was used to develop the Houser gear conceptual model, a visual representation of a gear system depicting the fundamental relationship among nursing leadership, active teaching strategies, and student learning outcomes.

Faculty Perceptions of Teaching Nursing Content Online in Prelicensure Baccalaureate Nursing Programs.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of nursing faculty regarding the nature, challenges, and strengths of teaching course content online in prelicensure collaborative baccalaureate nursing programs and the implications for online course delivery. METHOD: This was an exploratory-descriptive, mixed-methods design based on document analysis, an online survey completed by 32 faculty, and interviews with 16 faculty in a representative sample of 13 English speaking colleges in Ontario. RESULTS: Participants perceived content containing complex cognitive concepts, experiential learning as in relational practice, and psychomotor skill mastery as better suited for traditional classroom delivery. Faculty identified challenges with developing higher level online discussions and having students collaborate. CONCLUSION: Online teaching took much more time and should be acknowledged in workload assignments. A hybrid teaching environment was preferred. Online education was useful when the content and the semesters/years were appropriate, and necessary supports were in place. [J Nurs Educ. 2020;59(12):683-691.].

Addressing the Faculty Shortage Through Connections: Stories of Becoming a Nurse Educator.

BACKGROUND: The current nursing faculty shortage is projected to continue. This article addresses recruitment and retention by contributing to the public stories of successful nursing faculty. METHOD: Narrative inquiry was used to examine how the ways of knowing of three associate degree nurse educators evolved over time in the community college setting. RESULTS: The educators' early stories portrayed an internal tension that was in sharp contrast to the capability and self-confidence of an expert nurse. Stories revealed their struggle to balance empathy and care (connected knowing) with logic and objectivity (separate knowing) when handling challenging student situations. Over time, the educators developed ways of integrating connected and separate knowing, becoming constructivist knowers. CONCLUSION: The findings validate the importance of providing meaningful support for novice educators. Private spaces to promote reflection and active dialoging with a trusted mentor will assist new faculty as they work through their integration of caring verses objective knowing. [J Nurs Educ. 2020;59(10):545-550.].

A National Survey of Faculty Perceptions of Nutrition in Nursing Education.

BACKGROUND: Nurses are situated to provide nutrition education to patients, yet it is not established how prepared nurses are for this role. This study described faculty perceptions of nutrition education in Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) programs. METHOD: This is a cross-sectional study of faculty from 4-year BSN programs. Participants completed an online questionnaire that asked about nutrition instruction at their school. RESULTS: Fifty surveys were returned, for a response rate of 35%. Most BSN programs required one (72.7%) or two (4.5%) nutrition courses. On average, students received 52.6 hours of nutrition instruction. Most (68.6%) schools reported more than 25 hours of nutrition education. Competing demands were frequently cited as barriers to providing nutrition education. CONCLUSION: Many schools met the expectation of 25 hours of nutrition education, based on the National Research Council. Many nursing curricula incorporated nutrition topics related to acute care, but training in chronic ambulatory nutrition was limited. [J Nurs Educ. 2020;59(10):566-569.].