NLN Releases New Survey Results of Nursing Schools & Programs Showing Persistent Challenges to Addressing the Nursing Shortage

Washington, DC — The results of the latest National League for Nursing survey of schools and programs of nursing across the spectrum of higher education are out, disappointing leaders in nursing education who have been calling for greater diversity among faculty and students, along with increased institutional capacity to admit more qualified applicants.

Increasing capacity is vital to easing a chronic shortage of nurses that is only predicted to worsen as demand increases with an aging U.S. population and significant numbers of nurses near retirement. Moreover, it is widely acknowledged that more students and faculty of color are needed to prepare a nursing workforce that can provide equitable health care with cultural humility to meet today’s ethnic, racial and socio-economic diversity among patients and caregivers.

More than a quarter of qualified applicants to RN programs are currently denied admission, according to the survey. The widespread shortage of nurse educators and a declining number of appropriate sites for clinical instruction are primarily responsible for this unfortunate state of affairs.

Based on responses from deans and directors from 37 percent of 992 member programs and schools, the survey collected data from the 2021-22 academic year, showing little change from the previous biennial survey, conducted over 2019-20 and released in 2021.

Within the past two decades, in fact, the survey has reflected only minimal progress in metrics that are key to the future of national and worldwide public health. The survey highlights several causes for concern, such as:

• Recruitment and hiring of faculty of color and from underrepresented population sectors, including rural America and the LBGTQ+ community
• The numbers of male faculty and pre-licensure students
• Enrollment of LBGTQ+ RN students
• Filling faculty vacancies
• Admitting a greater percentage of qualified applicants to pre-licensure and advanced degree nursing programs
  

“The need to increase diversity among nursing students and faculty presents a continuing challenge to policymakers, planners, government agencies, regulators and non-governmental organizations,” said NLN Chair Kathleen Poindexter, PhD, RN, CNE, ANEF, interim associate dean for academic affairs and assistant dean for undergraduate programs and faculty development at Michigan State University in Lansing. “We hope that this data will prove valuable to those who craft legislation, approve budgets, develop nursing education goals, and otherwise influence the direction of public health.”

“The message is unmistakable,” said NLN President and CEO Beverly Malone, PhD, RN, FAAN. “We must do more to reverse the looming threat of the worsening nursing shortage to public health. All of us must continue to pressure Congress for more funding for nursing education through Title VIII and raise our voices through other existing channels, like our state legislatures and health care agencies, to advocate for sustained support and meaningful change. As America’s most trusted health care professionals, nurses and nurse educators have the power of influence, and we must use it.”

In the academic year analyzed, nearly 59 percent of students enrolled in basic RN programs are white while 14.6 percent are African American. Hispanic students make up the next largest minority group, at 13 percent, followed by Asian or Pacific Islander at 9 percent and Native Americans at 0.5 percent.

By contrast, full-time faculty are racially imbalanced, with more than 76 percent identified as white, while Black nurse educators make up only 4.2 percent of faculty, Hispanics at 11 percent, Asian or Pacific Islander at 4.2 percent, and Native Americans at 0.3 percent.

Demographics of sex and gender are similarly skewed. Men make up only 8.1 percent of full-time nurse educators and male nursing students make up just 13.3 percent of RN candidates. Transgender, genderqueer or gender nonbinary individuals are three-tenths of one percent of full-time faculty and 0.1 percent of enrolled RN students are genderqueer or gender nonbinary.

While 86 percent of schools say they plan to hire new faculty to fill upwards of 1,000 vacant budgeted spots, nearly 80 percent report difficulty in recruiting and hiring. Among the reasons cited are lack of qualified candidates and salary limitations, especially relative to job openings for nurses with specialized advanced degrees, like nurse practitioners. Indeed, higher paying tenured and tenure-track positions in nursing education have become scarcer. According to the survey, nearly 70 percent of faculty are not tenured, nor on a tenure track at present.

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