Title : Exploring and responding to increasing burnout among higher education nursing faculty in the United States
Abstract:
Nursing faculty are at high risk for stress and burnout. This risk is poised to worsen with the current nursing faculty shortage. According to AACN’s report on 2022-2023 Enrollment and Graduations in Baccalaureate and Graduate Programs in Nursing, U.S. nursing schools turned away 78,191 qualified applications from baccalaureate and graduate nursing programs in 2022 due to an insufficient number of faculty, clinical sites, classroom space, clinical preceptors, and budget constraints. Most nursing schools responding to the survey pointed to faculty shortages as a top reason for not accepting all qualified applicants into their programs (AACN, 2023). Nursing faculty are experiencing burnout which includes lack of job satisfaction, low morale, decreased social and peer support, exhaustion, and other psychological and physiological effects. The United States’ experience with the pandemic has placed the reality of our current nursing shortage, and it’s widespread implications into the spotlight. While burnout has been addressed in clinical nursing, nurse faculty have not received as much attention related to chronic stress and burnout or recognition of personal chronic stress potentially leading to burnout.
