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Nursing faculty have a critical role in the academic and social preparation of nursing health care professionals through the educational process. The quality of nursing education provided directly influences and affects the practice readiness and competence of new nursing graduates at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. The extent to which graduating nurses are practice ready and competent has a direct influence and effect on the quality of nursing care, patient care outcomes, and the quality and safety of health care systems. To ensure the delivery of excellent academic nursing education, it is imperative for academic nursing leaders to promote and invest in nursing faculty development as a critical nursing professional development action.
As an aspect of nursing professional development, nursing faculty development facilitates role development, promotes personal and professional growth, and enhances academic nursing practice. Some of the benefits of nursing faculty development include (1) enhancing pedagogical knowledge and skills; (2) remaining current on evidence-based nursing practice; (3) keeping pace with technological advances; (4) expediting promotion and career advancement; (5) adapting to generational student learner needs; (6) cultivating academic leadership and promoting succession planning; (7) facilitating a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI); and (8) advancing the development of academic nursing science through Boyer's model of scholarship (Phillips et al., 2019; Smith et al., 2023).
The nursing faculty shortage is well established and is a continuous challenge for nursing programs (American Association Colleges of Nursing (AACN, 2022). Most nursing faculty are hired directly from clinical practice or after completion of a graduate degree with little to no formal teaching experience. Experienced faculty need continuous development to maintain engagement and satisfaction to meet the demands of the role and advance their career. The quality of professional development opportunities in a school of nursing is often a major component of successful recruitment and retention of faculty.
The Southeastern Conference (SEC) Nursing Deans' Collaborative established professional development of faculty as a collective priority in 2020 (Andrews et al., 2022). A task force of four deans was established to develop and distribute a survey for faculty in the 12 SEC nursing programs to explore and prioritize faculty development needs in the southeastern region. The group planned to use the findings to develop a regional...