The nursing shortage continues as faculty shortage grows.

To combat the nursing shortage, efforts to promote nursing as a career have been successful. However, academic nursing institutions are not adequately prepared for this new influx of applicants. The lack of faculty to educate the growing demand for baccalaureate-prepared RNs directly impacts the nursing shortage. The nursing shortage thus directly impacts safe patient care. The main reasons for the lack of faculty to meet the demand for more nurses include the increased age of the current faculty and the declining number of years left to teach, expected increases in faculty retirements, less compensation for academic teaching than positions in clinical areas for master's-prepared nurses, and finally, not enough master's and doctoral-prepared nurses to fill the needed nurse educator positions It is in the best interest of the nursing profession to do what it does best by incorporating the nursing process to solve the faculty shortage and secure its future in order to protect the lives of patients.