Nursing Faculty Shortage Fact Sheet

• According to AACN’s report on 2025-2026 Enrollment and Graduations in Baccalaureate and Graduate Programs in Nursing, U.S. nursing schools turned away 92,672 qualified applications from baccalaureate and graduate nursing programs in 2025 due to an insufficient number of faculty, clinical sites, classroom space, clinical preceptors, and budget constraints. Most nursing schools responding to the survey pointed to faculty shortages as a top reason for not accepting all qualified applicants into their programs.
   
• According to a Special Survey on Vacant Faculty Positions released by AACN in October 2025, a total of 1,588 full-time faculty vacancies were identified in a survey of 863 nursing schools with baccalaureate and/or graduate programs across the country (80.3% response rate). Besides the vacancies, schools cited the need to create an additional 150 faculty positions to accommodate student demand. The data show a national nurse faculty vacancy rate of 7.2%. Most of the vacancies (80.9%) were faculty positions requiring or preferring a doctoral degree.
   
• According to a study published in the Journal of Professional Nursing in March 2026, 2015–2024 Trends in Nursing Faculty Vacancies across the United States, the 10-year national average full-time faculty vacancy rate was 7.64%. The Midwest and South had the lowest vacancy rates; the West and North Atlantic had the highest.

Faculty age remains high, narrowing the number of productive years educators teach.

According to AACN's report on 2025-2026 Salaries of Instructional and Administrative Nursing Faculty, the average ages of doctorally prepared nurse faculty holding the ranks of professor, associate professor, and assistant professor were 60.2, 55.0, and 48.9 years, respectively. For master's degree-prepared nurse faculty, the average ages for professors, associate professors, and assistant professors were 52.5, 50.2, and 46.9 years, respectively.

A wave of faculty retirements is expected across the U.S. over the next decade.

• According to a study published in the Journal of Nursing Regulation in April 2026, the proportion of nursing faculty at retirement age (≥65 years) doubled from 16.9 % in 2017 to 34.2 % in 2024, while fewer nurses aged between 18 and 39 years entered or were retained in faculty roles during the same time frame.
   
• An article published in Nursing Outlook titled Retirements and Succession of Nursing Faculty in 2016-2025 found that one third of the nursing faculty workforce in baccalaureate and graduate programs were expected to retire by 2025. The accuracy of these projections were confirmed in a follow-up article published in February 2024 titled Assessment of Nursing Faculty Retirement Projections. This finding underscores the urgency for the nursing education community to address the exodus of senior faculty and to develop younger faculty for succession.

Higher compensation in clinical and private-sector settings is luring current and potential nurse educators away from teaching.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median salary across advanced practice registered nurse roles is $132,050. By contrast, AACN reported in May 2026 that the average annual salary for a master’s-prepared professor in schools of nursing is $82,762.

PhD nursing programs are not producing a large enough pool of potential nurse educators to meet the demand.

In May 2026, AACN reported that enrollment in PhD nursing programs declined for the 11th consecutive year, with a 3.05% decrease (127 students) from 2024 to 2025. Since 2013, enrollment in PhD programs has decreased by 20.8%, from 5,145 to 4,077 students. This downward trend is of great concern to academic nursing leaders responsible for preparing future nurse researchers, scientists, educators, and leaders.

Further, efforts to expand the nurse educator population are frustrated by the fact that thousands of qualified applicants to graduate nursing programs are turned away each year. In 2025, AACN found that 6,496 qualified applications were turned away from master's programs, and 10,359 qualified applications were turned away from doctoral programs. The primary reasons for not accepting all qualified students were a shortage of faculty, preceptors, and clinical education sites.

• AACN is taking steps to address the nurse faculty shortage by working with Jonas Philanthropies to support doctoral nursing students; by advocating for new federal legislation and increased funding for graduate education; hosting an annual faculty development conference; collecting data to quantify the scope of the shortage; promoting faculty careers through the Graduate Nursing Student Academy; and collaborating with national nursing organizations and practice partners to help identify solutions.
   
• In May 2026, AACN and Jonas Philanthropies announced the expansion of the Jonas Scholars Program that was launched to strengthen  the nation’s supply of doctoral-prepared nurses available to serve as faculty, scientists, and clinicians. Since 2008, this program has provided financial support and leadership development to more than 1,400 Scholars in all 50 states.
   
• Many statewide initiatives have been launched to address the shortage of nurse educators and expand clinical teaching capacity. Read more about initiatives underway in Alabama, Arizona, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, and Wisconsin.
   
• To increase the number of clinical nurse educators, which are also known as preceptors, several states including Colorado, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, South Carolina, and Virginia offer tax incentives for nurses serving in these teaching roles. Legislation offering financial incentives to preceptors has also been introduced in Kansas, Massachusetts, New Mexico, and New York.
   
• Schools of nursing are forming academic-practice partnerships and working collaboratively with other stakeholders to bridge the faculty gap. For example, the University of Maryland School of Nursing has expanded clinical learning capacity by forming partnerships with 22 regional hospitals and the North Carolina AHEC Clinical Instructor Partnership (CIP) Program has facilitated more than 20 partnerships, serving as an effective strategy for expanding student enrollment capacity, providing practice retention opportunities, and creating nurse recruitment pipelines.
   
• In January 2021, the National Advisory Council on Nurse Education and Practice (NACNEP) has released its 17th annual report to Congress titled Preparing Nurse Faculty, and Addressing the Shortage of Nurse Faculty and Clinical Preceptors. NACNEP is calling on a public-private response to develop, support, and fund a wide range of initiatives to address the shortage of nurse faculty and enhance nursing education. The NACNEP report calls on Congress to focus on three priorities to fully address this perennial concern, including:
  
  

  • Provide funding to programs that increase the number of nurse faculty and clinical preceptors and support nurse faculty development.

  • Provide funding for the Health Resources and Services Administration to develop a nurse faculty residency program that emphasizes strategies to improve faculty recruitment, preparation, development, and retention.

  • Create a national center devoted to nursing education and the development of nurse faculty and clinical preceptors.

• Federal legislators understand the connection between having enough nursing faculty and mitigating the nursing workforce shortage. Recent legislative efforts include the PRECEPT Nurses Act, the Nurse Faculty Shortage Reduction Act, and The Future Advancement of Academic Nursing (FAAN) Act.
   
• The federal government administers several programs specifically targeted to addressing the nurse faculty shortage:
  
  

  • Administered by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), the Nurse Faculty Loan Program assists graduate students pursuing faculty careers. Students must agree to teach at a school of nursing in exchange for cancellation of up to 85% of their educational loans, plus interest, over a four-year period.

  • The Faculty Loan Repayment Program administered by HRSA’s Bureau of Health Workforce provides up to $40,000 in loan repayment for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds who serve as faculty at eligible health professions schools for a minimum of two years.

  • HRSA’s Nurse Corps Repayment Program provides nurse faculty who commit to working in an eligible nursing school with up to 60% in debt cancellation for two years of services, and an additional 25% for a third year of service.

  • The Department of Education routinely identifies programs that prepare nurse faculty as eligible for funding through the Graduate Assistance in Areas of  National Need (GAANN) program.

• AACN operates NursingCAS, the nation’s centralized application service for prelicensure and graduate nursing programs. One of the primary reasons for launching NursingCAS was to ensure that all vacant seats in schools of nursing are filled. In 2025, nearly 17,000 vacant seats were identified in master’s and doctoral nursing programs alone. NursingCAS provides a mechanism to fill these seats and maximize the educational capacity of schools of nursing.

Anderson, M., Taylor, N., Rowley, T., Owens, C., & Iacob, E. (2024, July-August). Understanding factors influencing nursing faculty departure and intentions. Nurse Educator, 49(4), 222-226. doi:10.1097/NNE.0000000000001612

Bakewell-Sachs, S., Trautman, D., & Rosseter, R. (2022, August). Addressing the nurse faculty shortage. The American Nurse. 2022-2023 Education and Career Guide.

Barrett, J., & Kernodle, Z. (2026, March). Funding nurse recruitment while defunding nurse educators. JAMA Health Forum, 7(3), e260075. doi:10.1001/jamahealthforum.2026.0075

Blakeman, J.R., Baur, K., Nielsen, S., LoVerde, J., Carls, C., & Cross, R. (2025, July-August). Addressing the nurse educator shortage: Transitioning bedside nurses to clinical faculty by demystifying roles and responsibilities. Journal of Professional Nursing, 59, 61-67. doi:10.1016/j.profnurs.2025.04.012

Bottino, B. (2022, December 22). To Build the Workforce, We Need More Nurse Educators. Nurse.com blog.

Fang, D., Zangaro, G., & Kesten, K. (2024, March). Assessment of nursing faculty retirement projections. Nursing Outlook, 72(2), 102135. doi:10.1016/j.outlook.2024.102135

Jarosinski, J.M., Seldomridge, L., Reid, T.P., & Willey, J. (2022, May/June). Nurse faculty shortage: Voices of nursing program administrators. Nurse Educator, 47(3), 151-155.

Kaminski-Ozturk, N., Bienemy, C., White Delaney, C., Forcina, J., Hagopian, C.O.P., Hitt, J., Young, L.K., & Reid, M. (2026, April). Vital signs: A trend analysis of the nursing faculty workforce. Journal of Nursing Regulation, 17(1), 25-35. doi:10.1016/j.jnr.2026.01.006

Young, L., & Adams, J. (2024, March). Increasing the number of nursing faculty: Evaluation of a university system workforce grant. Nursing Outlook, 72(2), 102138. doi:10.1016/j.outlook.2024.102138

Zangaro, G.A., & Kesten, K. (2026, March-April). 2015–2024 trends in nursing faculty vacancies across the United States. Journal of Professional Nursing, 63, 99-107. doi:10.1016/j.profnurs.2026.01.008