Teaching in nursing: the faculty role

Linda M. Finke, PhD, RN

As the demands of society have changed, the faculty role in higher education has grown from the singular colonial unitarian mission of teaching to a multifaceted challenge of teaching, scholarship, and service. Over time, as nursing education has moved from the service sector to college and university campuses, the role of nursing faculty has evolved, becoming increasingly complex. As higher education and the science of nursing have developed, the impact on nursing education has been tremendous.

Today higher education and nursing education are poised on the brink of sweeping changes. The forces driving these changes are numerous and difficult to isolate: the increasing multiculturalism of society; decreasing financial resources in education and health care; changes in the delivery of health care through health care reform; the integration of evidence-based practice and the need for more nurses with higher degrees; expanding technology and the accompanying knowledge explosion; the need for lifelong learning; a shifting emphasis to learning, instead of teaching; and the increasing public demand for accountability of educational outcomes. These are just a few of the issues that educators must consider as they fulfill the responsibilities of their role. There has been a call by the federal government and others to build more points of student assessment into postsecondary education to provide the evidence that outcomes are being met in an effort to hold colleges and universities accountable for the learning experiences they provide (Dwyer, Millett, & Payne, 2006).

The need of nurse educators to maintain strong clinical skills while there continues to be a critical shortage of nurses that is projected to last for decades has created an additional hurdle for nurse educators. To meet projected demand for registered nurses, nursing programs must increase their graduation rates, specifically for nurses with higher degrees (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2010). The recent Future of Nursing report released by the Institute of Medicine (2010) issued a call for a nursing workforce in which 80% of the nurses have a bachelor’s degree in nursing by 2020 as well as double the number of nurses prepared with a doctorate. At the same time, the Tri-Council for Nursing (2010)—made up of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, American Nurses Association, American Organization of Nurse Executives, and National League for Nursing—reports a scarcity of prepared nursing faculty. The demand for more nurses with advanced degrees for health care delivery and a scarcity of prepared nursing faculty have placed a tremendous burden on nursing education and the faculty trying to meet the growing needs. Nursing education is entering a crisis with no end in sight, overloaded by the demand to teach more students with fewer faculty members.

As faculty in higher education face these challenges, they need to find new ways to teach and implement their role. Benner, Sutphen, Leonard, and Day (2010) call for “radical transformation” of nursing education. They made 26 recommendations to transform nursing education, calling for a major paradigm shift in nursing education. Nursing faculty of the future need to embrace innovation and be advocates for change and forward movement. This chapter provides a brief historical perspective of the faculty role, identifies faculty rights and responsibilities, and describes the process of faculty appointment, promotion, and tenure within the current context. In addition, faculty development of the competencies related to teaching as a scholarly endeavor is discussed, and implications for change in the faculty role needed to meet current and future expectations and demands are addressed.

Historical perspective of faculty role in higher education

The role of the faculty member in academia has developed through time as the role of higher education in America has changed. If one reviews the history of American higher education, three phases of overlapping development can be identified (Boyer, 1990).

The first phase of development occurred during colonial times. Heavily influenced by British tradition, the role of faculty in the colonial college was a singular one: that of teaching. The educational system “was expected to educate and morally uplift the coming generation” (Boyer, 1990, p. 4). Teaching was considered an honored vocation with the intended purpose of developing student character and preparing students for leadership in civic and religious roles. This focus on teaching as the central mission of the university continued well into the nineteenth century.

Gradually, however, the focus of education began to shift from the development of the individual to the development of a nation, signaling the beginning of the second phase of development within higher education. Legislation such as the Morrill Act of 1862 and the Hatch Act of 1887 helped create public expectations that added the responsibility of service to the traditional faculty role of teaching. This legislation provided each state with land and funding to support the education of leaders for agriculture and industry. Universities and colleges took on the mission to educate for the common good (Boyer, 1990). Educational systems were expected to provide service to the states, businesses, and industries. It was in the 1870s that the first formal schools of nursing began to appear in the United States. Nursing programs were established in hospitals to help meet the service needs of the hospitals. Nursing faculty were expected to provide service to the institution and to teach new nurses along the way. Nursing students were expected to learn while they helped staff the hospitals.

In the mid-nineteenth century, a commitment to the development of science began in many universities on the East Coast (Boyer, 1990), thus beginning the third phase of development in higher education. Scholarship through research was added as an expectation to the role of faculty. This emphasis on research was greatly enhanced in later years by federal support for academic research that began during World War II and continued after the war. Gradually, as expectations for faculty to conduct research spread throughout institutions across the nation, teaching and service began to be viewed with less importance as a measurement tool for academic prestige and productivity within institutions. Faculty found it increasingly difficult to achieve tenure without a record of research and publication, despite accomplishments in teaching and service. As nursing education entered the university setting, nursing faculty began to be held to the same standards of research productivity as faculty in other more traditionally academia-based disciplines. Because of the prominence of practice in nursing, the integration of scholarship into the role of nursing faculty grew slowly initially. The emphasis on research in higher education as evidence of faculty productivity has continued to this day.

Currently a rapidly changing political environment and health care reform are having a dramatic effect on the role of nursing faculty. Universities are facing a “new and sometimes hostile world” (Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges, 1996, p. 2). Diminishing resources and increasing public scrutiny and expectations place a heavy burden on faculty in higher education. Changes in health care will demand that nursing faculty critically evaluate the design of curricula and the competencies of graduates. There is increasing emphasis on the teaching role of faculty with an accompanying expectation that outcomes of the educational process will be regularly assessed at the institutional and program levels. The balance among teaching, research, and service is being reexamined in many institutions for its congruence with the institution’s mission.

Further changes in higher education include a revolution in teaching strategies. Sole reliance on the use of lecture is no longer an accepted teaching method. Instead faculty are integrating the use of technology into their teaching and promoting the active involvement of students in the learning process. Computer-mediated courses and the use of simulation are the future of higher education and the norm in nursing as movement is made away from the structured classroom to the much larger learning environments of the home, community, and clinical setting. Distance education strategies play an increasingly important role in the education of learners.

Furthermore, nursing care delivery is changing to a community-based, consumer-driven system. The shift from acute care to the important role of primary care has had an impact on the curricula of undergraduate and graduate nursing education. There also is a continuing gap in the representation of minorities in nursing education programs, with the percentage holding at 10% for decades. There is a need to expand the number of graduates from baccalaureate nursing programs and to increase the numbers of graduates from underrepresented populations. As the minority population continues to grow, all nurses must increase their skills to meet the needs of this underserved population. Application of cultural competency content requires major revision of some nursing curricula (Amen & Pacquiao, 2004; Campinha-Bacote, 2005).

The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (2010) reports that there is a growing need for increased numbers of nurses prepared at the doctoral level, not only to teach but also to collect and analyze data necessary to evaluate the effectiveness of health care and to identify trends of future development. The clinical movement toward advance practice nurses holding the Doctor of Nursing Practice degree creates an overwhelming need for nurses prepared with a doctorate. The majority of nursing programs (61.4%) reported not being able to accept more students because of the need for qualified faculty, with the programs predicting a growing need. All of these issues place nursing faculty at the heart of the nursing shortage.

Faculty rights and responsibilities in academia

In the academic environment, faculty have traditionally enjoyed a number of rights, including the right to self-governance within the university setting. Governance may include participation on department and university committees and “using . . .professional expertise to solve community problems” (Gaff & Lambert, 1996, p. 40). Self-governance includes developing policies for faculty behavior, student affairs, and curriculum; performing administrative activities; and providing advice to administrators or student groups. Serving on committees or task forces at the department, school, or university level is also an expectation of faculty (Tucker, 1992). Faculty, in cooperation with administrators, share in addressing the issues that face the university and the community it serves.

As constituents place more and more expectations on faculty for productivity, faculty governance is not as highly valued by those outside of academia (Plater, 1995). However, the new environment for higher education demands new forms of governance, including representative forms. Methods must be instituted to maintain the participation of faculty in governance while allowing for less of a time commitment. The change that must permeate all other aspects of the role of twenty-first-century faculty must also permeate governance.

The core responsibility of faculty is the teaching and learning that takes place in the institution. Boards and administrators delegate decisions about most aspects of the teaching–learning process to faculty. This responsibility includes not only the delivery of content but also curriculum development and evaluation, development of student evaluation methods, and graduation requirements (Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges, 1996). Faculty also have the responsibility to create the standards for promotion and tenure of faculty. Tenured faculty have the right and responsibility to mentor more junior colleagues and to approve standards or criteria for appointment and promotion of faculty in non-tenure tracks.

Intellectual property, copyright, and fair use laws govern faculty and student use of works developed by faculty, students, and others. The easy online access of course content has added to this complicated issue. Most academic settings have policies that guide the development of “works for hire,” which may include course content, written works, and products. Many institutions of higher learning now lay claim to works developed by faculty because the faculty member was hired to develop the content. A wise faculty member is well informed about these institutional policies so that there is no misunderstanding about ownership of course materials and other works developed by the faculty member.

Evaluation is a major responsibility of faculty. Faculty engage in the evaluation of students and of colleagues. Peer evaluation is a vital aspect of faculty development and is part of the documentation data considered in the decision-making process for promotion and tenure. Faculty are involved in the development of fair and equitable evaluation criteria on which to base these judgments. Effective teaching is the gold standard that all faculty must meet. Excellence in research and service is the added value.

Another responsibility of faculty is mentoring. Nursing faculty mentor not only nursing students but also other faculty members in their development as teachers and scholars. The mentoring of students may include not only formal academic advisement but also the coaching, supporting, and guiding of protégés through the academic system and into their professional careers. The mentoring of faculty members also involves coaching, supporting, and guiding as they develop in their role as faculty. When starting at a new institution, even an experienced faculty member has some culture shock and requires mentoring (Lieb, 1995). Lieb (1995) defines mentoring as helping another to reach his or her potential.

The mentoring of new faculty members is an especially important responsibility because nurses are not usually prepared in graduate nursing programs for a role in academia. Faculty are dropped into an environment with unspoken rules and expectations that can be markedly different from those of their previous practice environment. Faculty know the role of the student from experience but see the faculty role from a distance. Mentoring is needed to assist new faculty members as they learn to balance all aspects of their complex role.

The responsibilities of nursing faculty include teaching and scholarship, as well as service to the school, university, community, and the profession of nursing. Nursing faculty have the responsibility to expand their service beyond the university and local community to active participation in professional nursing organizations at local, regional, and national levels. Nursing faculty often provide the leadership for these organizations and set national public policy agendas. As a faculty member climbs the promotion and tenure ladder, service responsibilities increase and leadership at the national level is required.

True success as a faculty member is measured by the person’s ability to juggle all aspects of the faculty role. Although some educational settings emphasize teaching, many require that faculty meet established criteria in all aspects of the role—teaching, research, and service. With careful planning and selection of activities, nursing faculty can integrate clinical interests into scholarship, service, and teaching, thus meeting the expectations of the role. On initial appointment to a faculty position, the faculty member will be well served by the development of a 5- to 6-year career plan designed to ensure that he or she will meet the criteria for all aspects of the role.

Some faculty do work in a unionized environment. The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) is probably the best known faculty union. Faculty can also be members of AAUP without belonging to a union. In a setting that has a union, faculty rights and responsibilities can be affected by the negotiated contract.

Faculty appointment, promotion, and tenure

Faculty are appointed by the governing body of the college or university and are responsible, in cooperation with the administration of the institution, for teaching, scholarship, and service (Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges, 1996). Faculty are appointed to fulfill various responsibilities to meet the mission and goals of the college or university and the school of nursing and, according to their degrees and experience, are promoted and tenured on the basis of achievement of specified criteria. Faculty may hold appointments in more than one unit of the institution, including other academic units or service units. Criteria for promotion and tenure are based on the institution’s overall mission and thus vary among institutions.