AACN Joins with The DAISY Foundation to Issue a National Call for Nurse Faculty Recognition

WASHINGTON, D.C., December 11, 2018 -The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) is pleased to join with The DAISY FoundationT to issue a National Call for Nurse Faculty Recognition to honor academic leaders responsible for preparing the nation's nursing workforce. AACN encourages all stakeholders within nursing education, research, and practice to make honoring faculty a priority and highlight the critical work they do to elevate health and health care across the U.S. and around the world.

"Behind every well-educated nurse is a cadre of faculty members who were there to teach, guide, and mentor them on how to provide high-quality, evidence-based services," said Dr. Deborah Trautman, AACN President and Chief Executive Officer. "AACN applauds all nurse educators and the commitment they share to instilling a commitment to compassionate, patient-centered care among future generations of nurses."

Since 2010, AACN has been working with The DAISY Foundation to support programs that recognize the important contributions that nursing faculty and students make to patient care. At AACN's Business Meeting in late October 2018, AACN announced its intention to issue a national Call for Nurse Faculty Recognition to encourage schools and practice sites to honor nurse educators who are making a real difference in their schools and the community.

"The DAISY Foundation's commitment to honoring nurses stems from the extraordinary compassion we experienced when our son Patrick was in need of nursing care following a fatal diagnosis," said Bonnie Barnes, President and Co-Founder of the DAISY Foundation. "We want to honor faculty who teach and inspire nurses to care like Patrick's nurses cared for him and for our family."

Recognizing nurse educators may be one of the keys to addressing the ongoing shortage of nurse faculty. Current evidence indicates that meaningful recognition matters. Faculty who are publicly acknowledged are more satisfied with their teaching roles, leading to greater desire to continue to teach. The latest data from AACN confirm that the full-time vacancy rate for faculty teaching in baccalaureate and graduate nursing programs has increased from 7.3% in 2017 to 7.9% in 2018. Most of the vacancies (90.7%) are for positions requiring or preferring a doctoral degree. Survey respondents reported that the major reasons precluding schools from recruiting additional faculty are insufficient funding, an unwillingness by school administration to commit to hiring more faculty, and an inability to compete with jobs offering higher salaries in the clinical setting.

AACN encourages those wishing to formally recognize nurse educators to consider using The DAISY Award® for Extraordinary Nursing Faculty. This award was created to honor nursing faculty who inspire their students to provide high quality, compassionate care. To date, more than 560 nurse educators have been recognized with this distinguished honor. To find out more about this program, see the website here.