Scholarship - It Is Up to Faculty: An Exploration of Registered Nurse-to-Bachelor of Science in Nursing Student Intent for Faculty Role

This episode of the NLN Nursing EDge Unscripted Scholarship track features guests Yolanda VanRiel, Elizabeth Gazza, and Beth Cusatis Phillips. Learn more about their work, It Is Up to Faculty: An Exploration of Registered Nurse-to-Bachelor of Science in Nursing Student Intent for Faculty Role.

VanRiel YM, Gazza EA, Phillips BC. It Is Up to Faculty: An Exploration of Registered Nurse-to-Bachelor of Science in Nursing Student Intent for Faculty Role. Nurs Educ Perspect. 2023 Jan-Feb 01;44(1):24-29. doi: 10.1097/01.NEP.0000000000001023. Epub 2022 Sep 6. PMID: 36580618.

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Transcript

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[Music][Music] Welcome to this episode of NLN podcast Nursing EDge Unscripted the scholarship track.  I'm your host Dr. Steven Palazzo, a member of the Editorial Board for Nursing Education Perspectives.  Nursing EDge Unscripted and our track entitled Scholarship celebrates the published work of  select nurse educators from the NLN's official journal, Nursing Education Perspectives, and the  NLN Nursing EDge blog. The conversations embrace the author's unique perspectives on teaching and  learning Innovations and the implications for nursing program development and enhancement.  This episode is about an exploration of the Registered Nurse to Bachelor of Science in  

Nursing: 1:18

intent for a faculty role. So the article is entitled, "It Is Up to Faculty: An Exploration  of Registered Nurse to Bachelor of Science of Nursing Student Intent for Faculty Role.  The discussion will focus on the unique findings of the authors who published a  manuscript in the January-February 2023 issue of Nursing Education Perspectives.  Our speakers today are Dr. Yolanda VanRiel, who's the department chair of nursing and associate  professor at North Carolina Central University in Durham, North Carolina. Dr. Elizabeth Gazza, who is the associate director of faculty and staff development and professor  at the University of North Carolina School of Nursing-Wilmington and Dr. Beth Phillips,  who's an associate professor emeritus at Duke University School of Nursing in Durham. Welcome  to all of you and thank you for joining us. Thank you. So I want to ask first and just  start with, you know just to kind of go over what the purpose of your study was and talk briefly  about how you use the social cognitive career theory to frame your research. Thank you Stephen. I'm going to go first. We were part of a previous study actually that look looked at what it is with students that draws them to nursing  education. And we were very interested because clearly we have a nursing faculty shortage and  it has continued to get worse since we wrote this article and did this study. So one of our  main focuses of this qualitative study was to look at the population of RN to BSN students  who may have a future thought or intent to go on and become a faculty member. In previous  studies, like I said that we replicated, we looked at both associate degrees nursing  students and generic baccalaureate students and so we were very interested in this  group that's already RNs and what they may  contribute to the literature and findings.  We really loved the social cognitive career theory because of several reasons. It looks at individual  career choices. So we wanted to know, you know, everyone has a different reason maybe why they're  going forward and so this this theory has room for that. It's not all in one bucket so to speak.   Some of the attributes that came through, shining through with using this theory in this study was  that role modeling is extremely important to these RN to BSN students and also having the  encouragement of faculty made such a difference to their decision-making in the long term. So this  theory really seemed to match what we were hoping to gain. Great, thank you very much. Also, can you  describe the five theme base recommendations that emerged from your discussion with the participants?  Sure, absolutely Steven. I'll be happy to take that on. We did uncover five themes  through thematic analysis. And so I'll address each one of those along with just a few of the  recommendations from perhaps a couple of questions to prompt reflection. The first theme was  about modeling the role of a positive and negative and the interesting thing was that academic nurse  educators are front and center when it comes to marketing a career as a nurse educator or nurse  faculty member. And based on our study findings, our students look up to us and in some cases they want  to be like us, and not only do they watch us, but according to the study they listen and not just  to the information that we include in courses. They hear us talk about heavy workloads, hours of work  and pay and second jobs. And they hear us talking about grading into the wee hours of the morning  and so this this begs the question of what are we as academic nurse educators conveying to  this potential pool of future faculty? What are we conveying to them by our words and our actions?  Whenever we are interacting with students one or the second theme was about planting the seeds and  when we think about the size of that pool of potential faculty and the impact we as nurse  faculty could have on influencing students to pursue a career as nursing faculty... it's  quite a large pool. And it's feasible based on the findings of our study that we as academic  nurse educators are not doing a good job of planting the seed that could grow a career a  nurse career into an academic nurse educator. So we hear about students wanting to work in  critical care and women's health and become nurse practitioners and nurse anesthetists.  And imagine the possibilities if we propose the ANE role early in entry-level nursing education  and foster that throughout the education process. And we tried to get students to experience being  an educator by including them in teaching and research and including alumni as preceptors  and it really is up to us as academic nurse educators. In terms of pursuing rather than  knowing, they spend hours...when you think about how much time we spend with students, they spend hours  with faculty over the course of their program and yet, based on this study, they really don't know  what we do. We need to work to unveil the role of the academic nurse educators. Again, they are seeing  what other nurses and NPs and CRNAs and CNS's do and they shadow nurses who are in these roles, but  when do they shadow and learn about the nurse educator role? And so I often wonder when  do they know that academic nurse educators are responsible for advancing nursing science and  nursing education science by conducting research and a nursing practice through quality improvement  and evidence-based practice. Again it's really up to us as educators to target this population.  So they might not have a clear understanding of what we do in our role but they have  experienced the rewards of teaching because our participants talked about seeing that light bulb  go on or that moment when they were teaching someone and they noticed that the learner got  it they got it and they saw that light bulb come on. So as educators, exposing students to those  opportunities where they can teach others and feel what it's like to see the light bulb go  on and when the learner gets it. And lastly, in terms of weighing the pros and cons, as we as  nurse educators model and plant and explain and expose them to the role we can also help them  weigh the pros and cons of a career as an academic nurse educator helping them to understand the  educational pathways that lead to the role and funding to support graduate level education and  the benefits of academic-based work life, and again, to do this early in their career. So those are the  five themes that we uncovered, a lot of opportunity for recommendations that were included in the  published article, but it really indicates that we as academic nurse educators can play a key role in  planting that seed and fostering growth of future nurse educators by working with the students that  we encounter in our classes. Great, thank you. That was a great summary of your findings.  It kind of leads into the next question, which is what can faculty and schools of nursing  do today to attract and retain promising candidates as nursing faculty? Where does the gap  in our understanding remain on the issue and what are your recommendations for further study? So, you  know, what is that, what is that nurse educator look like that those students are gravitating towards  and how as nurse educators could we be aware? I think sometimes we're not aware of the impact  we're having and that there are students or we don't recognize those students who are interested  in nursing as an educational opportunity for them as faculty. And so what do we do?  All right, thank you Steven. So that is my question.  So to attract I think and retain those candidates and I think it's important that faculty  understand the facts that drive students towards becoming educators and recognize that the student's  potential for future nursing faculty roles and I think Dr. Gazza said it perfectly   when you conveyed an enthusiasm for faculty work. You know, when you introduce students to  the role while they're in their undergraduate programs, throughout teaching opportunities,  role modeling, and sharing what we found out is students would love to teach. They  often start out by tutoring their classmates so just sharing those benefits, immersing the  students in teaching and also involving them in research and scholarship, publish with them. Also, service is a big part of it as well. Show them all aspects of the teaching role and  then clarify those misperceptions that they have about faculty role. Just be explicit  about the numerous and varied aspects of teaching, scholarship, curriculum development, course design,  delivery, program evaluation. And allow students...allow students to see your light  bulb go on. Share what are the rewards of teaching, watching these students grow, develop  into nurses and then just helping them realize their potential as nurse educator and leader and  then also that faculty need to understand just how influential they are to students and how  important their encouragement may be to students as future educators. And also offer those education  fairs where students can learn about graduate programs because we are preparing nurses as  educators of the future. One of the things that we were thinking about as far as recommendation  for a future study is - how does faculty nurture students? That's one of the studies that we  were thinking about. What are the attributes that they see in students that they acknowledge?  Also, what is the perception of faculty about recruiting students to future faculty roles? That may inform the next students. And also, another recommendation is determine how many current  faculty members explore the role while they're in their undergraduate education. So those are just a  few of the ones that we were thinking of. Wonderful. What are all of your thoughts on programs that are... students that are ahead a quarter or semester, basically peer mentoring. There's some universities  I know that have programs that the students get paid and they act as a learning assistant in the  classroom for the cohort behind them in a course that they excelled in and that seems like that  would be a great way to capture those students who may be interested in nursing education or becoming  future faculty members. I don't know a lot about those programs and I don't know if any of you have  heard about many of them, but that seems like it would be a good start. Well, I can tell you one of  the things that I am doing is we have tutors and what I'm doing is I'm seeing those students  who are real good with their groups and I walked in on one student and he was teaching  the group and he is, I actually hired him when he graduated and he's working now and he's a tutor. and I think you know it's best for students to learn from up here and they are really enjoying  that oh, yeah, so I have two of them, one graduated in 2020 and like I said one graduated last year.  Wonderful. I'd love to comment on that as well. I think that that if we tap into students  who are interested in that teaching role, that's the beginning. But unfortunately what we're seeing  even in faculty is faculty tend to teach the way they were taught. And we're teaching in a new era  today with new students a faster pace high tech, so there needs to be some teaching practicum  experience and education about ways to teach these days. And so I think setting up programs...  The other thing that seems like a no-brainer but unfortunately for all my years in education it  didn't click to me until we did this study is that we have such a powerful voice if we encourage them,  like Yolanda said, about what's so good about being an educator. You know, we talk about all the papers  we have to grade or all the, you know, how hard work and spending the weekends but what about  all the great parts about teaching. I think we have to talk it up amongst our students so that they  see it's an it's a viable option. That's a great point. If I could add one additional comment. The other thing, I think as a profession, we need to take a look at where we place the academic nurse educator or the nurse educator role.  and should we be elevating that as an advanced practice specialty role? It is a specialty.  There is certification for it. And so perhaps the fact that we are not elevating this role to that  level, to the level that it really should be is communicating to students that it's not quite as  good or quite as specialized as some of the other tracks that students might pursue. And not just  our students, our other colleagues in other areas, as other specialty areas, in advanced practice.  I agree that's one of those areas that I've been really vocal about recognition as an  advanced specialty practice and I think we have a ways to go if that's if that's a battle that  we're willing to take on. But I would encourage others to think about what you just said.  Is there anything else that we'd like our readers or, excuse me, our, well  eventually your readers, but our podcast viewers to know about your work? If I could I would just some summarize it with three points because I was having a  conversation with my colleagues about what they could be doing with students. We have a  large RN-BSN population and I said if you show them, tell them, and encourage them those are the three  simple things that you can do because those three things could potentially go a long way to opening  the possible, the students up to the possibility of a career as an ANE. So show them, tell them, and  encourage them. That's great advice. Well I want to thank you all so much for joining in this  conversation. I really appreciate the time and expertise you all bring to this conversation. It  helps us have a better understanding of the work that's being done out there on this topic and the  work that you're doing. And to our listeners, if you have not had the opportunity to read this  work, you will find the manuscript, again it's called "It Is Up to Faculty: An Exploration of  Registered Nurse-to-Bachelor of Science and Nursing Student Intent for Faculty Role." And  it's in the January-February 2023 edition of Nursing Education Perspectives. And again,  thank you all for joining us and thank you to the viewers out there for supporting us. Thank you.