Health systems are taking on what one leader has called the “next major workforce crisis”: a shortage of nurse educators.

In 2024, U.S. nursing schools turned away 80,162 qualified applications. Within that total, 65,398 applications from entry-level baccalaureate were turned away, 1,530 from RN-to-BSN, 7,603 from master’s, 5,366 from DNP and 265 from PhD nursing programs.

“There’s never been a shortage of qualified applicants,” Carolyn Santora, MSN, RN, chief nursing officer and chief regulatory officer at Stony Brook (N.Y.) University Hospital, told Becker’s. “The bottleneck has been a shortage of faculty, limiting class sizes.”

The aging nurse faculty workforce is a key challenge for some of these programs. The average age of nursing faculty in four-year programs is in the 60s, Susan Reeves, EdD, RN, system chief nurse executive at Lebanon, N.H.-based Dartmouth Health, told Becker’s.

“Many will retire soon, and there aren’t enough younger educators ready to replace them,” she said. “Compounding this, new nursing graduates often earn more in practice than faculty with decades of experience. This is shaping up to be our next major workforce crisis.”

To address these issues, health systems are taking up the torch to support education opportunities for nursing students and new nurses. This looks different at every system.

Two years ago, Chicago-based CommonSpirit Health launched a standardized nurse residency program across its roughly 140 care sites nationwide. The residency lasts a full year and gives nurses access to a preceptor and mentor throughout their training. The system also made preceptor training mandatory.

“Not everyone is naturally a good teacher, so we ensure only those with the right temperament and skills guide our new nurses,” Tim Plante, MSN, RN, chief nursing officer of the central region of CommonSpirit, told Becker’s. “The results speak for themselves: Our region has over 90% one-year retention among residency graduates.”

The system encourages experienced nurses to serve as adjunct faculty in schools and clinical rotations. CommonSpirit has also used dedicated education units.

At Loma Linda (Calif.) University Health Hospitals, nurses have access to a two-year leadership residency program that includes preceptor experiences and annual tuition reimbursement for graduate-level education.

“While enrollment in the nurse educator program remains low, it is stable,” Helen Staples-Evans, DNP, RN, senior vice president of patient care services and chief nursing officer at Loma Linda (Calif.) University Health Hospitals, told Becker’s. “To address this, we are placing increased focus on promoting the educator track through our clinical professional development program.”

At almost every system, nurses are taking on adjunct faculty roles in addition to their bedside positions. Although this formula has worked for decades, rising demand for educators and fewer nurses willing to take on additional work have driven systems to be more creative. A growing solution is a formalized dual nurse-educator role. Split nurse faculty roles address a few issues: low pay in teaching positions, ensuring students get up-to-date education, allowing experienced nurses to share their expertise without leaving the bedside and helping to give schools the capacity for more nursing students, which turns into more nurses entering the field.

Dayton, Ohio-based Premier Health is starting a split nurse-educator program. At Premier, bedside nurses will be able to use one of their 12-hour shifts to act as clinical faculty for a group of students, ideally on their home unit. Nurses will receive their normal salary and negotiate with the school for faculty reimbursement.

So far, there has been a lot of interest in the program.

“This program gives nurses who are interested in education a chance to get their foot in the door with universities and colleges,” Lisa Gossett, MSN, RN, system chief nursing officer and chief experience officer at Premier Health, told Becker’s. “The schools also provide training to help them be the best clinical faculty they can be.”

Livonia, Mich.-based Trinity Health is also utilizing split roles to help increase university class sizes and get more experienced nurses into precepting, overseeing rotations or working with undergraduate students in clinical settings.

“We invest heavily in the student nurse experience because that’s our future workforce, and we want as many of those students as possible to join our organization after graduation,” Timothy Carrigan, PhD, RN, regional chief nursing officer of Illinois and Indiana at Trinity Health, told Becker’s. “Requirements for nursing faculty vary state to state, so we can’t roll out one program nationally, but wherever possible, we partner with both local and national universities to increase the new graduate pipeline and provide career development opportunities for our workforce.”

Dr. Carrigan said most of the nurses stepping into these educator roles tend to be early in their career or in the middle of their career. This can include nurses with as little as two to three years of experience working as preceptors, charge nurses, nurse educators and faculty members.

It is similar at Stony Brook University Hospital.

“Once nurses complete orientation and are qualified, they’re expected to precept students at the unit level,” Ms. Santora said. “In a teaching hospital, education is part of the job, but extra teaching beyond your regular duties is voluntary and paid through the school of nursing.”

All these efforts may be showing early signs of success.

The American Association of Colleges of Nursing found the number of students enrolling in most nursing undergraduate and graduate programs has increased, reversing a several-year-long downward trend. In 2024, the total number of applications to nursing programs of all levels reached 728,819, an increase of 46,272 applications since 2023. By program, the applications increased by 8.5% for BSN, 4.5% for master’s, 7.2% for PhD, and 18.5% for DNP programs. Only RN-to-BSN programs saw a slight decrease in applications, at -0.7%.

“The recent increases in enrollment are due to schools expanding capacity in response to the projected nursing shortage,” Ms. Santora said. “So the rise isn’t about new interest, it’s about more schools being able to admit the students who’ve always been applying.”

The post The next ‘major workforce crisis’ systems are tackling appeared first on Becker’s Hospital Review | Healthcare News & Analysis.