The Nursing Faculty Shortage: Why Retention Is Critical Now
Faculty vacancies are not a future worry: they are a present crisis with measurable consequences. The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) found 1,588 unfilled full-time faculty positions across 863 nursing schools in 2025, a 7.2% nurse faculty vacancy rate.1 Over the past decade, that rate has averaged 7.64%2, with 2024 hitting 7.9%3. But empty positions only tell part of the story.
A Pipeline Under Pressure
When faculty lines go unfilled, programs cannot expand, or even maintain, their cohorts. The nursing faculty shortage meant that for the 2024, 2025 academic year, more than 80,000 qualified applications were turned away from nursing schools1, partially because there simply were not enough educators to teach them. The downstream effect is clear: fewer graduates enter the workforce at a time when hospital RN turnover hovers near 17.6% and vacancy rates exceed 8%.4
Poll as Early Warning
Against that backdrop, our audience poll serves as a focused temperature check. Respondents did not just identify generic problems; they named the specific threats they believe are driving faculty out the door. The results that follow illuminate why retention, not just recruitment, must be the priority.
When NurseEducator.com asked 86 nursing educators what most threatens retention, one answer captured 51.2% of the votes: higher pay in clinical practice. That lopsided result lands in a field where the faculty shortage has already left 1,588 positions unfilled across U.S. nursing schools. It suggests that wellness initiatives, however well-intentioned, cannot fix a crisis rooted in a basic economic tension between what teaching pays and what the bedside offers.
What you’ll learn in this article…
- Over 51% of poll respondents named higher clinical pay as the top retention threat.
- Compensation and workload together accounted for 74.4% of all responses.
- Faculty earned roughly $50,000 less annually than nurse practitioners in 2025.
About the Nurse Faculty Retention Poll
A carefully sampled academic survey and an open audience poll answer different questions. This project was the latter. NurseEducator.com asked readers a single question, "What Most Threatens Nurse Faculty Retention?", and invited them to select one answer from eight possible retention threats. The poll ran from July 29 through August 10, 2026.
The export contained 89 submissions. Three blank entries were excluded, leaving 86 valid responses for analysis.
Methodology at a Glance
- Poll question: What Most Threatens Nurse Faculty Retention?
- Poll period: July 29 to August 10, 2026
- Exported submissions: 89
- Blank submissions excluded: 3
- Valid responses analyzed: 86
- Response format: Single selection
- Number of answer choices: 8
- Sampling method: Open, self-selected online convenience poll
- Intended use: Directional insight into perceived retention threats
- Representation: Not nationally representative
Reading the Results Responsibly
Because this was an open, self-selected convenience poll, the findings should be treated as directional feedback rather than a representative estimate of the entire nurse faculty population. A review also flagged five possible duplicate-response pairs. A conservative sensitivity test removing one entry from each pair still left compensation as the leading concern, moving from 44 of 86 responses (51.2%) to 39 of 81 (48.1%), with the overall ranking unchanged.
One more caveat matters as much as the sample size: respondents could choose only one threat. Someone facing low pay, heavy workload, and weak leadership simultaneously still had to name a single priority. The poll captures perceived priority, not prevalence.
Key Findings: Compensation and Workload Lead All Threats
The poll results reveal a heavily concentrated response pattern. When 86 nurse educators were asked to select the single greatest threat to faculty retention, compensation and workload dominated. A combined 74.4% of respondents chose one of these two answers, and 83.7% selected one of the top three. Even in a forced-choice format, the concentration around pay and workload signals that respondents overwhelmingly view these as the primary forces driving faculty out of academic nursing.
Higher Pay in Clinical Practice: The 51.2% That Signals a Crisis
For many registered nurses, the decision to move into education is first a financial calculation. The numbers often reveal a stark reality: staying at the bedside or advancing into a specialty role can pay significantly more than teaching the next generation of nurses. While academic nursing offers intellectual stimulation and the chance to shape the profession, the nurse educator salary gap is wide enough to pull experienced nurses away from the classroom and keep potential educators from entering in the first place.
The Numbers Behind the Tension
Nationwide faculty salary data paints a clear picture. According to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, doctorally prepared nursing faculty earned an average of $108,278 at the assistant professor level, $123,379 as associate professors, and $155,312 as full professors in 2024-2025.1 Those figures climb even higher at certain institutions; for example, Florida State reported a mean of $190,581 for full professors that same year.4 However, these averages hide a wide distribution. The Bureau of Labor Statistics recorded a median annual wage of just $80,780 for postsecondary nursing instructors in 2023, with the bottom quarter earning $63,050 or less.2 One 2025 study placed the overall nursing faculty mean salary at $81,617, nearly $8,800 below the $90,435 average for nurses in other roles.3
In the NurseEducator.com poll, 51.2 percent of respondents chose higher pay in clinical practice as the single biggest threat to nurse faculty retention. All other answers combined accounted for 48.8 percent. Pay stands entirely alone as a majority concern.
Structural Drivers Widen the Gap
Unlike most academic salaries, clinical compensation benefits from overtime, shift differentials, weekend premiums, and on-call pay. A staff nurse who picks up extra shifts or works nights can quickly surpass a base faculty salary. Advanced practice roles amplify the divide: nurse practitioners and nurse anesthetists, among the high paying nursing specialties, routinely earn well into six figures, with anesthetists sometimes earning double the average faculty wage. Even without specific BLS figures for these specialties in hand, the direction is clear. Clinical pay is dynamic and frequently incentivized; faculty salaries are typically fixed and adjusted on a much slower cycle.
Retention Consequences of the Pay Disparity
The gap does not just hurt recruitment. Faculty already in place often maintain clinical competencies and may be recruited back to practice. When a seasoned nurse educator sees that returning to direct care could raise their income by $15,000 or more without the weight of committee meetings, accreditation paperwork, or unpredictable student loads, the pull is real. Some choose to leave academia entirely; others reduce their academic hours to take on clinical per-diem work, trading long-term commitment for immediate financial relief. This disrupts program continuity and forces departments to hire less experienced replacements or leave positions unfilled.
A Threshold Issue, Not a Silver Bullet
Placing compensation at the top of the list does not mean it is the only problem. Competitive pay is better described as a threshold requirement: without it, no amount of wellness programming or leadership development will keep faculty who cannot make the numbers work. Yet the poll also showed that 48.8 percent of respondents saw an issue other than pay as the top threat. Institutions that raise salaries without addressing workload, leadership, or administrative burdens may still lose educators who find the job unsustainable. The real signal is that academic nursing must first match the economic realities of clinical nursing before any other retention strategy can gain traction.
Nurse practitioners earned a mean annual wage of $137,300 in 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, while postsecondary nursing instructors earned just $86,880, a gap of over $50,000 despite faculty roles often requiring a doctoral degree. This divide can widen further in high-demand specialties like anesthesia.
An academic position may become especially difficult to sustain when it combines lower perceived earning potential with high or unpredictable workloads.
Metrics Nursing Programs Should Monitor
Moving from anecdotal concern to a measurable retention strategy requires consistent tracking. The following metrics can help nursing programs identify emerging problems, evaluate interventions, and make data informed decisions about faculty workforce planning. When sample sizes permit and confidentiality can be protected, institutions should evaluate these metrics by faculty rank, appointment type, specialty, program, and career stage.
| Metric | What It Reveals |
|---|---|
| Annual faculty turnover rate | Overall retention stability across the program or department |
| Voluntary departure rate | How often faculty are choosing to leave, separate from retirements or contract endings |
| Vacancy duration | How long open positions remain unfilled, signaling recruitment difficulty |
| Offer acceptance rate | Whether compensation, workload, and working conditions are competitive enough to close hires |
| Full time versus adjunct composition | The program's dependence on contingent faculty and potential vulnerability if adjunct availability shifts |
| Average workload by appointment type | Possible workload inequities between clinical track, tenure track, and adjunct appointments |
| Faculty compensation by rank and specialty | Market alignment, salary compression, and whether pay reflects advanced education and clinical expertise |
| Promotion rate | Whether faculty have realistic career mobility or face stalled advancement |
| Faculty engagement or climate survey results | Leadership effectiveness, workplace concerns, and overall satisfaction before problems reach the resignation stage |
| Exit interview themes | Recurring reasons faculty report for leaving, which can confirm or challenge assumptions about turnover |
| Stay interview themes | Conditions that currently keep faculty in their roles and changes that could improve retention |
| Use of leave and flexible work arrangements | Potential work life pressures that may signal unsustainable scheduling or hidden workload demands |
Related Articles
The poll's message is a dual imperative: 51.2% of respondents named higher clinical pay the top threat, and 23.3% cited excessive workload. Together, nearly three-quarters point to a value equation where financial competitiveness and sustainable working conditions are inseparable. Nursing faculty retention will not improve through wellness initiatives alone. Institutions must examine both what they pay faculty and what they ask them to carry. As nursing programs confront this reality, the pipeline matters too. Nurses ready to shape the next generation can explore nurse educator career paths as a practical step toward an academic career built to last.
