Determining nursing faculty development needs

Although faculty members often come to a university school of nursing with little or no experience in teaching, research, or other forms of scholarship, few schools of nursing have a comprehensive, formalized faculty development program. In considering the need to find and retain the best faculty in this competitive market, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing appointed a task force to develop a formal faculty development program for the School. After reviewing the literature and contacting 24 schools of nursing, the task force concluded that most do not offer a systematic approach to faculty development. The task force developed and distributed a needs assessment and received responses from 53% of the faculty. Based on the needs assessment the task force made eight recommendations to the faculty for an ongoing, comprehensive faculty development program.