Award Date

12-2011

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in Nursing

Department

Nursing

First Committee Member

Susan Kowalski, Chair

Second Committee Member

Michele Clark

Third Committee Member

Carolyn Yucha

Graduate Faculty Representative

Vicki Rosser

Number of Pages

179

Abstract

The National League for Nursing (NLN) endorses mentoring throughout the nursing faculty career trajectory as the method to recruit nurses into academia and improve retention of nursing faculty within the academy (NLN, 2006). One way mentoring assists faculty is by easing socialization to the culture of the employing institution and decreasing faculty stress (Lewallen, Crane, Letvak, Jones, & Hu, 2003). Mentoring can also be a facilitating factor of an individual's psychological empowerment. Academia is an environment able to foster psychological empowerment, a state in which faculty may be self-directed, highly productive, confident, and find a meaningful connection to their work (Spreitzer, 1995a).

This research study was a descriptive cross-sectional quantitative design, conducted via online survey administered by Survey Monkey. A nationwide sample of 959 Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE) accredited full-time nursing faculty completed the study. The survey was comprised of a researcher-created demographic questionnaire plus several psychometrically tested instruments: Dreher's mentoring scale, Gmelch's faculty stress index, Spreitzer's psychological empowerment scale, and the National Survey for Postsecondary Faculty's (NSOPF) job satisfaction scale.

The average subject (N = 959) is female, 53 years old, Caucasian, married, and is not presently supporting dependent children. Professionally the average subject was doctorally prepared, and does not hold additional employment to their full-time faculty job. In addition, the following were the most commonly occurring career characteristics of the sample; less than 10 years of experience as a full-time faculty member, less than 10 years of employment at the current institution, rank of assistant professor or clinical assistant professor, untenured, and an annual salary of $70,000 to $79,999.

Results showed that 40% of the sample had a current work mentor. Variables showed significant relationships to job satisfaction (p < .01): mentoring quality (.229), job stress (-.568), and psychological empowerment (.482). Multiple regression results indicated that job satisfaction was significantly influenced (p < .01) by the presence of a mentoring relationship (β = .110, t = 3.477, p < .001), salary (β = .171, t = 4.582, p < .0005), tenure status (β = -.094, t = -2.722, p < .007), psychological empowerment (β = .305, t = 8.860, p < .0005), and job stress (β = -.426, t = -12.851, p < .0005). The regression model explained 47% of the variance in job satisfaction for the sample.

Keywords

Health and environmental sciences; Job satisfaction; Job stress; Mentoring; Nursing – Study and teaching; Nursing faculty; Nursing schools – Faculty; Psychological empowerment

Disciplines

Adult and Continuing Education and Teaching | Higher Education Administration | Nursing | Work, Economy and Organizations

File Format

pdf

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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