Publication Date

2008

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Jeris, Laurel

Degree Name

Ed.D. (Doctor of Education)

Legacy Department

Department of Counseling, Adult and Higher Education

LCSH

Nursing schools--United States--Faculty; Nursing--Study and teaching--United States

Abstract

This dissertation explored the reasons that tenured nurse educators entered and remain in higher education and described their characteristics. The study addressed the current shortage of nurse educators and the growing shortage of nurses. Rationales identified as contributing to the shortage include: (1) aging of our society, (2) an increase in available job markets for women, (3) compensation and workload discrepancies between education, service, and other areas of employment, (4) professional educational requirements and expectations, and (5) tenure requirements in higher education. This exploratory descriptive study posed three research questions: (1) What personal and contextual factors influence nursing educators to enter higher education? (2) What personal and contextual factors influence nursing educators to remain in higher education? (3) What personal characteristics, traits and skills do tenured nurse educators possess? Herzberg's Motivation Hygiene Theory, a job satisfaction framework, was used to answer the research questions. A 33-item survey was developed consisting of demographics, reasons nurse educators entered and remain in higher education, and personal characteristics. A list of nurse educators was gathered from the AACN website and it was mailed, via email, to 10,537 nurse educators throughout the U.S.A. A total of 1,729 surveys were returned, and 1,171 surveys or 67.72 percent met the tenure requirement and were used in this study. Data were analyzed using SPSS PC (Version 13.01). The resulting demographics reflect concerns noted in the literature. The average age range of respondents was 50-59 years: In gender, 1,115 (95.8%) identified as female and 49 (42%) identified as male. No gender differences were found using the Mann Whitney U test. Using the Friedman test, significant differences between variables identified as reasons for entering and remaining in higher education were found. An exploratory factor analysis revealed six factors that accounted for a total of 50.7% of the variance. Those factors are: (1) Professional Satisfaction with Faculty Identity (21.9%); (2) Resource Management Skills (7.1%); (3) Research Satisfaction (6.4%); (4) Academic Social Skills (5.8%); (5) Entry Desire for Faculty Role (5.2%); and (6) Satisfaction with Faculty Prerequisites (4.3%). Implications for practice and further research are discussed.

Comments

Includes bibliographical references (pages [118]-130)

Extent

vii, 158 pages

Language

eng

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

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