Faculty Workload In Nursing and Management
What Is Faculty Workload
Faculty
workload refers to all professional duties and responsibilities of faculty
related to teaching, research, scholarship, service to the institution and the
community, and professional development (Allen, 1998; Townsend & Rosser,
2007; Yuker, 1984) Faculty workload refers to all the duties and
responsibilities of the faculty to meet the needs of their students, of the
educational institution where they work, and of their self-development. These include
but are not limited to teaching, research, service, professional development,
and administrative duties.
How Assess Faculty Load In Nursing Education
The Committee on Colleges and University Teaching, Research, and Publications of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP, 2000) published the Statement on Faculty Workload that provides guidelines for institutions. Because there is no single formula to ensure equitable and fair faculty workload, AAUP proposed three guiding principles for institutions to consider in developing policies and procedures: define maximum teaching loads at the undergraduate and graduate levels that ensure teaching effectiveness; describe the procedure to be followed in establishing. administering , and revising policies related to faculty workload; and identify actual and potential sources of inequity in workload distribution.
AAUP proposed a preferred teaching load
of 9 hours per week for undergraduate teaching, 6 hours per week for graduate
teaching, and a maximum workload of 12 hours for undergraduate teaching and 9
hours for graduate teaching AAUP recommended flexibility in assigning workload
and consideration of factors such as difficulty of course; content of course;
class size, requirements for research and publication; and other non-instructional
responsibilities such as student counseling. committee work, participation in
professional societies, and administrative duties A key to allocate faculty
responsibility is to sustain and ensure consistent quality in teaching and
scholarship
Faculty workload is linked to job satisfaction and attrition. In addition, workload is viewed as a contributing factor in nursing faculty shortage (Kaufman, 2007). In 2006, the National League for Nursing and the Carnegie Foundation partnered to study key factors that contribute to the faculty short-age. This partnership resulted in a survey of 8,498 nursing faculty members nationwide. Nurse educators reported working about 56 hours per week while school was in session and more than 24 hours per week during breaks. In addition, those with administrative responsibilities work an extra 2 hours per week.
this study, one in four nurse educators expressed the likelihood of leaving his or her job unless workload was reduced.Online teaching involves more faculty time compared to face-to-face teaching (Mupinga & Maughan, 2008). A study of faculty workload in distance learning by Anderson and Avery (2008) showed that online teaching requires up to 46 hours of instruction per credit compared to about 39 hours for face-to-face instruction. AAUP( 2000) recommends consideration of online faculty involvement in designing the course, class preparation, increased student contacts, synchronous or asynchronous teaching formats, and other administrative duties in calculating faculty workload in distance education.
Issue of Faculty Workload In Nursing
Faculty workload is an important issue in academia that has been under scrutiny in the climate of economic duress (Dennison, 2012). In 1919, the classic landmark study on faculty workload by Koos (American Association for Higher Education-Education Resources Information Center AAHE-ERIC/Higher Education Research Report, 1974) led to publication of a monograph by the Bureau of Education of the United States Department of Interior Later studies (AAHE-ERIC/Higher Education Research Report, 1974; AAUP, 2000; Cohen, Hickey, & Upchurch, 2009; Durham, Merritt, & Sorrell, 2007) proposed numerous methods to measure faculty workload. The variety of ideas on acceptable faculty activities to include in calculating workloads has resulted in a lack of a standard method.
Therefore, faculty workload policies vary from institution to institution.The issue of faculty workload may be a source of conflict and dissatisfaction among faculty members that can affect teaching effectiveness and performance. Increasing collaboration between university leadership and faculty governance can ensure that a clear, equitable, and fair policy is formulated and implemented. It is essential that the faculty have a mechanism to discuss or grieve workload issues. More research is needed to address the workload allocation for nursing faculty to increase teaching effectiveness and promote job satisfaction.
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