Using Faculty Mentors to Employ and Retain Nurse Practitioner Faculty

Simultaneously, as the nursing workforce ages, nursing educators are also becoming more senior rapidly. The need for new and younger faculty is evident for more nursing programs, including those for nurse practitioners.  Many institutions of higher education are having difficulty adding and replacing faculty members. The unique challenges in attracting nurse practitioner (NP) faculty include low academic pay as compared to earnings in clinical practice as well as the difficulty in continuing to practice in addition to teaching, producing scholarship and engaging in service. NP faculty need to complete in four days what non-practicing faculty complete in five days because of licensure and certification requirements, a day is required for the NP to practice. Practice also helps to keep NP faculty current and relevant in the classroom and is a faculty requirement of accrediting bodies for NP programs.   Balancing the four responsibilities of academia with family and personal well-being is the art and science mastered by successful faculty members. Mentorship of new faculty includes socialization to the institution and program and review of the official and unofficial work responsibilities. A successful mentor-mentee relationship includes information and strategies for managing  workload, practice, and expectations for new faculty. More frequent meetings to review organization and time management can help new faculty get organized and stay organized. Often, scholarship takes a back seat to preparation for classes, service commitments and practice. Negotiating schedules that allow for time dedicated to scholarship and practice place equal value on all aspects of the faculty role. Finally, mentors act as advocates for new faculty who may inadvertently accept more responsibility than they should in the first year. This is a particularly vulnerable time when the new faculty member is learning roles as well as developing content for courses. Recruitment for qualified faculty has become more difficult and therefore, retention of new faculty is all the more important.

Content:

Definition of mentoring

Responsibilities of mentor and mentee

Aging of nursing faculty

Barriers to recruitment of nursing faculty

Barriers to retention of nursing faculty

Mentorship strategies to aid new faculty