Nurses, We Need You at the Head of the Class

With hospitals across the country clamoring for nurses, one might imagine that nursing schools would be ushering in students by the dozen. But in actuality, hundreds of thousands of applicants are turned away from nursing programs each year, because there aren't enough people to teach them. Through a recent partnership with area colleges and universities, however, Cleveland Clinic has successfully placed more than 50 qualified nurses in adjunct faculty positions throughout Northeast Ohio.

The solution: A matchmaking site

When Cleveland Clinic first reached out in 2005 to Northeastern Ohio colleges and universities to try to combat the nursing faculty shortage, the group committed to several goals - including enhancing the regional supply of nurses.

To do so, they created a Web site that allows participating schools to post open teaching positions and qualified nurses to post their profiles. [To qualify to teach, according to State of Ohio Board of Nursing rules, nurses must have a Bachelor of Science in Nursing or higher to lead clinical groups, and a Master of Science in Nursing or higher to teach in the classroom.] Schools can search for nurses; nurses can search for jobs.

"We are the first to initiate a program like this on such a large scale, and we've opened it up to all eligible nurses and all teaching venues," says Maureen Talty, Programmer Analyst in Nursing Education and Professional Practice Development. As of Sept. 1, more than 150 nurses had entered their profiles, and one-third were subsequently hired as adjunct faculty for the Northeast Ohio Schools of Nursing.

Flexibility, advancement and other rewards

Many Cleveland Clinic nurses who participate in the program say they already had an interest in teaching. But there were challenges they needed to overcome -such as making time to teach, learning to instruct a formal class and teaching a new curriculum - before they could feel comfortable taking on a faculty role. Mary Lillash, RN, says she appreciates the flexibility of the site, explaining that she can list her profile as "inactive" when she is not available to teach.

The Deans' Roundtable Faculty Initiative trains all participating faculty members, many of whom have previously served in a leadership role. And even though basic nursing skills - critical thinking, compassion - haven't changed, the faculty are incorporating new concepts into their instruction. "There is much more emphasis on the interpersonal relationships, which is somethingyou can't lecture," says Anne Vanderbilt, RN. "You have to serve as a role model."

Our nurses: What teaching means to them

Nurses say that the Deans' Roundtable Faculty Initiative has allowed them to teach without giving up their jobs or performing under par. "I've always wanted to get back into it," says Lillash, who taught a clinical group years ago at Huron Hospital. "Right now, with the nursing shortage and faculty shortage, this is one way I could help out."

For Nancy Kaser, RN, Nursing Education, teaching also has been a way to show students the "good parts" of nursing, such as the opportunity to help patients and flexible work schedules. One of the greatest rewards, adds Lillash, is to watch students progress into nurses. "Someday I would like to see them here, working at the Clinic and using all they've learned along the way," she says.