Engaged Faculty Shape Engaged Nurses

Also published on LinkedIn

A colleague recently left a school of nursing due to a dissatisfaction with the unprofessional environment. Nursing Schools, faculty, and leaders exist on a spectrum that is only judged by by primarily one tool... national or state pass rates. A poor indicator on the quality of nurses that enter into the profession through these institutions of higher learning. This is a quiet crisis in nursing and education, and we are not talking about it enough.

When nursing faculty disengage from the profession beyond the walls of their institution, the impact does not stop at the classroom door. It shapes the professional identity of every student sitting in those seats. And in time, it shapes the workforce itself.

Students do not learn nursing only from slides, simulation labs, or clinical hours. They learn what nursing is by watching the people who teach them. They observe whether faculty are involved in professional associations. They notice whether policy debates are discussed. They sense whether regulatory threats, workforce legislation, or scope of practice issues matter to the people leading them.

If faculty are disconnected from the broader profession, students internalize a limited definition of nursing. Nursing becomes a job. A shift. A set of competencies. A checklist for licensure.

What disappears is the idea of nursing as a profession with a social contract. Opportunities are missed to shape and mold the future of the profession.

Professional identity formation is not accidental. It is modeled. When faculty are actively engaged in scholarship, advocacy, professional organizations, and public discourse, students witness stewardship. They see that being a nurse extends beyond employment. They understand that the profession requires participation, not just practice.

But when faculty are disengaged, not visible, focused solely on accreditation cycles, Board results, workload pressures, or toxic internal institutional politics, students absorb that posture. They graduate technically competent yet professionally underdeveloped. They enter the workforce as employees rather than as architects of the profession’s future.

Over time, this creates a compliance culture. Nurses who do not question regulatory changes. Nurses unaware of policy shifts that affect reimbursement, education funding, or degree recognition. Nurses absent from legislative advocacy. Leaders who see themselves as managers of systems rather than stewards of a profession.

And then we wonder why nursing struggles to assert itself in national conversations.

A profession cannot advance if its educators are disconnected from its evolution.

The pipeline of engaged faculty produces the pipeline of engaged leaders. If we want a workforce that understands its ethical obligations, its policy influence, and its collective power, we must model that engagement in nursing education.

This is not about expecting faculty to be everywhere or do everything. It is about remaining connected. Connected to the scholarship that shapes practice. Connected to the organizations that advocate for the profession and hold them accountable. Connected to the science and ethical foundations that justify nursing’s claim as a professional degree.

Students are always watching. They are not just learning how to pass boards. They are learning what kind of nurse they are allowed to become.

If we want an engaged nursing workforce ten years from now, the work begins with engaged nursing faculty today.

Nursing’s future is not built at the bedside alone. It is built in classrooms where the profession is either modeled with conviction, or quietly diminished through disengagement and retired on the job nursing faculty.

Nursing Dx:

Impaired Professional Role Development related to faculty disengagement from professional advocacy and scholarly stewardship as evidenced by graduates identifying primarily as employees rather than active stewards of the nursing profession.