255chapter ELEVEN
The 2016 Report on a National
Study of Doctoral Nursing Faculty:
A Quantitative Replication Study
Mary Ellen Smith Glasgow , Frances H. Cornelius,
Anand Bhattacharya , and H. Michael Dreher
The April 2007 release of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation policy briefing paper sug-
gested that as nursing faculty retire, nursing programs will yield a dual loss from the
decrease in the total number of faculty available to teach nursing students at all levels
and a reduction in the number of seasoned faculty who can orient and mentor new fac-
ulty and advise graduate students. Data presented in this revised text confirm that the
cycle of nursing faculty retirements has exceeded the number of new full- time faculty
replacements (Fang, Li, Stauffer, & Trautman, 2016; Glasgow & Dreher, 2010). Many of
these senior faculty members are doctoral faculty and funded researchers. These crit-
ical positions will need to be filled when senior faculty retire. However, as Potempa,
Redman, and Anderson (2008) have indicated, there is a lack of adequate role modeling,
particularly in undergraduate nursing education to foster pursuing careers as nursing
professors— thus the pipeline to the nursing professoriate is in crisis. As current senior
faculty contemplate concluding their formal careers, we need to focus on providing the
next generation of doctoral faculty (PhD, Doctor of Nursing Practice [DNP], and now
increasingly the doctorate in education [EdD] with the requisite knowledge and skills
that will be needed to survive and thrive in academia.
In our previous study (Dreher, Smith Glasgow, Cornelius, & Bhattacharya,
2012) we explored:
- Who will teach DNP students if the DNP degree does not prepare graduates
for their role as expert educators in graduate nursing programs (largely in ad-
vanced practice nursing programs)? - With the demand for advanced practice nurse educators to maintain clinical
competency to retain national certification, will future graduate advanced
practice registered nurses (APRN) faculty (for both master of science in nurs-
ing [MSN] and DNP programs) be marginalized and largely excluded from
tenure- track positions with their inability to also engage in seeking and secur-
ing funded research?