STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESSFUL MANAGEMENT AND OVERSIGHT OF NURSE FACULTY WORKFORCE INITIATIVES: LESSONS FROM THE FIELD

A looming shortage of nursing faculty is a major contributor to the growing national and international nursing workforce shortage. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN, 2006, October) highlighted strategies in use nationally to address the shortage of nursing faculty in a recently posted Web site. Summarized on that site are responses from state-level nursing program administrators to a questionnaire generated by the AACN Government Affairs Committee. The questionnaire addressed the state-level management of nursing faculty/workforce initiatives including loan repayment options, scholarship rebates, in-state tuition benefits for out-of-state students, stipends, housing loans, and tax credits, intended to support nurse faculty recruitment and retention. Hermeneutic analysis of state-level descriptions suggested a set of strategies broadly representing ways to optimize success in managing faculty recruitment and retention. Specifically, the strategies were (a) interorganizational collaboration, (b) recognizing and leveraging local networks, (c) aligning stakeholder priorities, (d) sidestepping barriers, (e) thinking big, and (f) refusing to give up. This report describes the characteristics of these thematic strategies.