HJBR Mar-Apr 2019

Healthcare Journal of BATON ROUGE I  MAR / APR 2019 53 Cynthia Bienemy, PhD, RN Director, Louisiana Center for Nursing faculty reported the largest percentage of teaching responsibilities (50 percent or more). Two percent (11) of the respon- dents were categorized as missing because of erroneous data reported on the survey, which resulted in a final sample size of 497 respondents; Employment status: 86 percent of the nurse faculty completing the 2018 LCN Nurse Faculty Survey were employed full- time and 11 percent were adjunct or part- time faculty. The remaining three percent selected “other” as their employment sta- tus and included statements such as “I just turned in my two weeks’ notice,” and “I now hold a different, non-nursing faculty job”; The majority of nurse faculty complet- ing the survey worked in RLMAs that are large urban metropolitan areas like the New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, and Shreveport RLMAs. The exception would be 20 percent of the LPN nurse faculty that were employed in the Alexandria RLMA; The majority of nurse faculty respond- ing to the survey were female, white, of non-Hispanic origin, with an average age of 51 years and a median age of 53 years. Twenty-seven percent (115) of the respon- dents were 60+ years old. Of the LPN faculty, 74 percent had ei- ther an associate degree (33 percent) or a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (41 per- cent), while 81 percent of the RN faculty had a master’s (58 percent) or a doctorate (23 percent), and 88 percent of the gradu- ate faculty had a master’s (10 percent) or a doctorate (78 percent). Fifty-nine percent of full-time nurse faculty reported having taken education courses in preparation for their teaching positions (31 percent of LPN faculty; 68 percent of RN faculty; and 59 percent of graduate faculty). Fifty-eight percent of the LPN faculty, 33 percent of the RN faculty, and 27 per- cent of the graduate faculty indicated they had been teaching for less than five years. Almost half (48 percent) of full-time fac- ulty responding to the survey indicated that they had been at their primary insti- tution for less than five years: 59 percent of LPN faculty; 45 percent of RN faculty; and 41 percent of graduate faculty. Over- all, 49 percent of full-time nurse faculty had nine-month teaching contracts and 32 percent had 12-month contracts. Fifty-six percent of nurse faculty responding to the survey were either not on tenure track or tenure track was not offered at their in- stitution. LPN faculty had the largest per- centage of faculty that were not working at institutions that offered a tenure track (53 percent). Eight percent of the nurse faculty re- ported holding a joint appointment, with the highest percentage reported by gradu­ ate faculty (14 percent). Ninety-two per- cent of full-time nurse faculty reported holding only one position in nursing ed- ucation, and seven percent (30 full-time nurse faculty) reported holding two po- sitions. LPN faculty reported working an average of 43 hours/wk.; RN faculty, 47 hours/wk.; and graduate faculty, 48 hours/ wk. Faculty teaching in LPN programs indicated that they taught an average of seven courses per academic year, which is equivalent to approximately 21 credit hours; faculty teaching in RN programs taught an average of five courses/19 credit hours; and graduate nurse faculty taught an average of seven courses/22 credits per academic year. Faculty reported that most of their work hours were spent on class- room teaching, clinical teaching, and clin- ical practice, with administrative respon- sibilities requiring nine, ten, and thirteen hours per week, respectively, for LPN, RN, and graduate faculty. Sixty-three percent of full-time facul- ty reported having created or revised a course within the previous academic year, and 36 percent indicated that they had given presentations at the local, regional, or national level. Potential Factors Contributing to a Nurse Faculty Shortage in Louisiana Salary/compensation: 68 percent of LPN faculty, 65 percent of RN faculty, and 56 percent of graduate faculty reported dissatisfaction with their salaries/com- pensation. At least 30 percent of full-time 86% 86 percent of the nurse faculty completing the 2018 LCN Nurse Faculty Survey were employed full-time and 11 percent were adjunct or part-time faculty.