The National League for Nursing (NLN) conducted the 2022 NLN Annual Survey of Schools of Nursing to provide data to policy makers, planners, governmental agencies, regulators, and others who use NLN workforce data to design legislation, plan budgets, and formulate long-range nursing education goals. This summary reports findings about nursing students, nurse educators, and challenges met by participating schools to address the shortage of nurses and nurse educators. The response rate was 37 percent of 992 NLN member schools invited to complete the survey (n = 369). Following are highlights of the findings with data compared to previous NLN surveys. Details are available online at https://www.nln.org/nlnNews/newsroom/nursing-education-statistics.
DEMOGRAPHICS
Nursing Students
The proportion of underrepresented students enrolled in prelicensure RN programs increased by 10.6 percent, from 30.9 percent in 2020 to 41.5 percent in 2022. Hispanic enrollment increased from 11 percent to 13 percent; African American enrollment increased from 11.2 percent to 14.6 percent; Asian and Pacific Islander enrollment increased from 4.7 percent to 9 percent; and American Indian or Alaska native enrollment remained at 0.5 percent; and enrollment of other or unknown race increased from 3.5 percent to 4.4 percent.
The enrollment of men in basic RN programs increased slightly, from 13 percent in 2020 to 13.3 percent in 2022. Enrollment of transgender, genderqueer, or gender nonbinary students in basic RN programs was 0.1 percent. The proportion of doctoral students under 30 years of age increased, from 16 percent in 2020 to 22 percent in 2022. Enrollment of students over 30 years of age decreased, from 84 percent to 78 percent in 2022.
Nurse Educators
The proportion of underrepresented full-time nurse educators increased by 0.2 percent from 2021. Of full-time educators in 2022, 20.8 percent were members of underrepresented populations: African Americans, 4.2 percent (down 6.6%); Hispanics, 11.0 percent (up 6%); Asians, 4.2 percent (down 0.1%); and American Indians or Alaska Natives, 0.3 percent (unchanged). Only 1.1 percent of nurse educators were multiracial (down 0.1%).
Male representation among full-time nurse educators decreased by 0.3 percent in 2022 compared to 2021. Of full-time faculty, only 8.1 percent were male; 0.3 percent were transgender, genderqueer, or gender nonbinary; and 0.3 percent were gender unknown. Among part-time faculty, the percentage of male faculty increased from 9.6 percent in 2021 to 11.4 percent in 2022. Only 0.02 percent of part-time faculty were transgender, genderqueer, or gender nonbinary, and 0.6 percent were gender unknown.
Most full-time nurse educators continued to be over 45 years of age (62.2%): 41.4 percent were 46 to 60 years of age; 20.8 percent were 61 years of age or older; and 35.3 percent were 30 to 45 years of age. The percentage of full-time faculty under 30 years of age was 2.4 percent.
PROGRAMS TURNING AWAY QUALIFIED APPLICANTS
NLN data indicate a decline in rejections for qualified applications for practical/vocational nursing programs (PN/VN) and associate degree (ADN), diploma, baccalaureate (BSN), and doctoral programs in 2022 compared to 2020. PN/VN programs turned away 19 percent of qualified applications in 2022, down 6 percent. ADN programs turned away 23 percent, down 12 percent; diploma programs turned away 14 percent, down 3 percent; and BSN programs turned away 17 percent, down 12 percent. Six percent of qualified applications were turned away by BSRN programs, up 1 percent. Master's programs turned away 12 percent, which remained unchanged, and doctoral programs turned away 22 percent, down 1 percent.
TENURE, VACANCIES, AND SALARIES
Of 10,571 full-time faculty across all ranks, 16.2 percent were tenured, unchanged compared to 2021; 14.4 percent were on a tenure track, an increase of 0.9 percent. Most full-time nurse educators (69.4%) were not on a tenure track, down 0.9 percent from 2021.
The total number of faculty vacancies for the nursing programs that responded to the survey was 1,005 in 2022. The 2022 survey asked deans and directors to indicate if their nursing program sought to hire new faculty. Most respondents (86%) indicated they sought to hire new faculty, and 315 nursing programs had difficulty recruiting and hiring faculty. The reasons given were as follows: not enough qualified faculty (34%), not being able to offer competitive salaries (45%), faculty positions less attractive (10%), not enough available faculty budget lines (4%), and other difficulties (7%) as indicated in Figure 1.
The survey revealed that 50 percent of full-time nurse educators had doctorate degrees, 48 percent had master's degrees, and 2 percent had bachelor's degrees. There continues to be a demand for more qualified nurse educators to enable nursing programs to admit more students.
Salary distributions, according to Carnegie classification (https://carnegieclassifications.acenet.edu), did not change a great deal. Doctoral/research education institutions continued to pay nurse educators the highest average full-time salaries, followed by master's and baccalaureate institutions. Colleges offering an associate degree in nursing paid, on average, the lowest salaries for full-time faculty.
SUMMARY
The survey found a decline in underrepresented nurse educators but a slight increase in gender diversity. Most nurse educators were found to be older, hence the need to recruit younger educators to meet the growing demand.
Budgeted, unfilled faculty positions continue to exist in most nursing programs because of factors including a shortage of qualified faculty candidates and the inability to offer competitive salaries. The nursing faculty shortage is still a major obstacle to expanding the capacity to educate more nurses, contributing to the nursing workforce shortage.
According to a study by Fang and Kesten (2017), one third of nurse faculty active in 2015 would be set to retire by 2025. The retirement of nurse faculty will have an enormous impact on the nurse faculty workforce, worsening the current shortage (National Advisory Council on Nurse Education and Practice, 2021). Continued support for Title VIII funding is critical to addressing the faculty shortage in nursing programs and needed to increase the capacity to meet the demand for qualified nurses.
REFERENCES