A study of nurse faculty job satisfaction in community colleges in Florida

Abstract

There are many factors that influence nurse faculty job satisfaction including professional achievement and growth, interpersonal relations, leadership, recognition, responsibility, salary, and working conditions. However, much of the research in this area is limited to the clinical nurse setting. There are few studies that focus on nurse faculty job satisfaction in the community college setting. One of the primary drivers for the current nursing shortage in the United States is a shortage of faculty. Better understanding of the factors influencing job satisfaction among faculty may be helpful in addressing the faculty shortage. The purpose of this study was to explore the constructs of job satisfaction and intent to stay. Community college nursing faculty was chosen given that all of the authors were nursing faculty in this type of setting. Examining the relationship between job satisfaction and intent to stay of nurse faculty in community colleges in Florida could provide information for deans and administrators of nursing programs to address the nurse faculty shortage. The sample was drawn from Associate in Science Programs faculty from the 23 community colleges in Florida that offer a nursing program. The qualitative part of this study focused on the perceptions or feelings of nurse faculty. The open-ended questions were based on the subscales of Herzberg's Motivation to Work Theory. The findings revealed that nurse faculty were most passionate about the salary and the work itself. The overwhelming majority response was that the faculty loved their jobs. This study found that overall job satisfaction can be used as a predictor for intent to stay. Findings further revealed that nurse faculty in community colleges in Florida are generally satisfied with their jobs and have intent to stay.