Nursing Faculty Professional Quality of Life and Resilience in a Changing Educational Environment

Background: Growing workload demands of nursing faculty has led to an academic work environment that is stressful with loss of work life balance and occupational burnout.

Method: Full-time faculty were surveyed prior to the pandemic at a private school of nursing using the Professional Quality of Life (ProQOL), Bride Secondary Traumatic Stress Scale (STSS), Conner-Davidson Resilience-10 (CDRS-10), and Trauma Informed Climate Scale (TICS-10).

Results: The ProQOL revealed moderate faculty burnout scores (mean score, 25.8). The STSS identified two thirds of faculty experienced secondary traumatic stress in various degrees, with one third of faculty respondents experiencing high to severe STSS symptoms. The CDRS-10 identified 42% of faculty scored within the lowest quartile and 13% of faculty scored within the highest quartile.

Conclusion: Faculty must be provided a safe work environment to limit burn-out, promote resilience, and support work life balance to address the current nursing faculty shortage. .