Impact of VANA academic-practice partnership participation on educational mobility decisions and teaching aspirations of nurses Tamar Wyte-Lake DPT, MPH, Candice Bowman PhD, RN, Jack Needleman PhD, Mary Dougherty DNSc, MBA, MA, RN, Diana N. Scarrott MPH, Aram Dobalian PhD, JD PII: S8755-7223(14)00037-4 DOI: doi: 10.1016/j.profnurs.2014.01.009 Reference: YJPNU 815 To appear in: Journal of Professional Nursing Received date: 20 June 2013 Please cite this article as: Wyte-Lake, T., Bowman, C., Needleman, J., Dougherty, M., Scarrott, D.N. & Dobalian, A., Impact of VANA academic-practice partnership participation on educational mobility decisions and teaching aspirations of nurses, Journal of Professional Nursing (2014), doi: 10.1016/j.profnurs.2014.01.009 This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.
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Impact of VANA academic-practice partnership participation on educationalmobility decisions and teaching aspirations of nurses
Tamar Wyte-Lake DPT, MPH, Candice Bowman PhD, RN, Jack NeedlemanPhD, Mary Dougherty DNSc, MBA, MA, RN, Diana N. Scarrott MPH, AramDobalian PhD, JD
Please cite this article as: Wyte-Lake, T., Bowman, C., Needleman, J., Dougherty,M., Scarrott, D.N. & Dobalian, A., Impact of VANA academic-practice partnershipparticipation on educational mobility decisions and teaching aspirations of nurses, Journalof Professional Nursing (2014), doi: 10.1016/j.profnurs.2014.01.009
This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication.As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript.The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proofbefore it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production processerrors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers thatapply to the journal pertain.
Impact of VANA academic-practice partnership participation on educational mobility decisions and teaching aspirations of nurses Authors Tamar Wyte-Lake, DPT, MPHa,b Candice Bowman, PhD, RNa,b Jack Needleman, PhDc Mary Dougherty, DNSc, MBA, MA, RNd Diana N. Scarrott, MPHa Aram Dobalian, PhD, JDa, b, c, e
a Veterans Emergency Management Evaluation Center (VEMEC), Sepulveda, CA b HSR&D Center for the Study of Healthcare Provider Behavior, VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Sepulveda, CA c Department of Health Policy and Management, University of California Los Angeles School of Public Health, Los Angeles, CA d Office of Academic Affiliations, Department of Veterans Affairs e University of California Los Angeles School of Nursing, Los Angeles, CA
Corresponding Author: Dr. Tamar Wyte-Lake Veterans Emergency Management Evaluation Center 16111 Plummer St. MS-152 Sepulveda, CA 91343 Phone: (818) 891-7711, ext. 2034 Fax: (818) 895-9578 Email: [email protected]
Acknowledgment: This material is based upon work supported by the Department of Veterans
Affairs, Veterans Health Administration, Offices of Academic Affiliations and Nursing Services.
The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the
position or policy of the Department of Veterans Affairs or the United States government.
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Abstract
This study reports findings assessing the influence of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Nursing
Academy (VANA) academic-practice partnership program on nurse decision making regarding educational
mobility and teaching aspirations. We conducted national surveys with nursing faculty from VANA
partnership sites in 2011 (N=133) and 2012 (N=74). Faculty who spent more hours per week in the VANA
role and who reported an increase in satisfaction with their participation in VANA were more likely to have
been influenced by their VANA experience in choosing to pursue a higher degree (p<0.05). Sixty-nine
percent of VANA faculty reported that they would be very interested in staying on as a VANA faculty
member if the program should continue. Six measures were positively associated with VANA’s influence on
the desire to continue as faculty beyond the VANA pilot; support from VANA colleagues, quality of VANA
students, amount of guidance with curriculum development, availability of administrative support, support
for improving teaching methods, and overall satisfaction with VANA experience (p<0.05). As the popularity
of academic-practice partnerships grows and their list of benefits is further enumerated, motivating nurses to
pursue both higher degrees and faculty roles should be listed among them based on results reported here.
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In its report on the future of nursing, the Institute of Medicine called for doubling the number of
nurses with doctorates and increasing to 80 percent the proportion of nurses with baccalaureate degrees.
(Institute of Medicine, 2011). Achieving these goals will require substantially increasing applications to and
enrollment in nursing doctoral programs and other efforts aimed at addressing the current nursing faculty
shortage. (Aiken, Cheung, & Olds, 2009; Beal, 2012; National League for Nursing, 2011). There has been
extensive experimentation with models to address the nursing shortage by engaging nurses, often prepared at
the masters or baccalaureate level and drawn from clinical care settings, into teaching. Little is known about
whether engagement in teaching and interaction with doctorally-prepared faculty influences subsequent
decisions by nurses to pursue further education or to aspire to ongoing roles as faculty. Adding a teaching
dimension to a staff nurse’s job description has been widely speculated to foster professional growth and
Purdy, 2004). Nevertheless, we identified only a single non-experimental study that noted the unintended
outcome of introducing nursing staff to career options such as teaching and research via participation in an
academic-practice partnership program (Kowalski et al., 2007). Beal (2012) suggests that an expected
outcome of effective academic-practice partnerships is an increase in the percentage of nurses who return for
advanced degrees.
The nursing literature on educational mobility, i.e. the pursuit of additional degrees, has mostly
focused on the Associate Degree- or Diploma-prepared nurse returning for a bachelor’s degree in nursing
(Cathro, 2011; Kovner, Brewer, Katigbak, Djukic, & Fatehi, 2012). The limited research available suggests
that a wide range of factors are associated with nurses’ willingness to return for an additional degree in
nursing; these factors include younger age at professional entry, being male, racial or ethnic minority status
(Bevill, Cleary, Lacey, & Nooney, 2007); lower career satisfaction, higher professional commitment, greater
job and promotional opportunities and organizational incentives (Warren & Mills, 2009); as well as non-
nursing work experience, holding more than one job, working the day shift, working voluntary overtime,
lower intent to stay at current employer, and higher work motivation (Kovner et al., 2012). Few studies have
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examined decisions by midcareer professionals to seek advanced degrees, particularly those recruited into
faculty positions through academic-practice partnerships.
This paper addresses this gap in our understanding of educational mobility by examining the
decisions of nurses recruited as faculty through the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Nursing Academy
(VANA) initiative to pursue further education and the role of VANA in those decisions.
Background
VANA was established in 2007 as a six-year pilot program to address nursing faculty shortages by
making salary support for hiring faculty available for 15 strategic partnerships throughout the country
(Bowman et al., 2011). The grant allowed 5 full-time equivalent faculty to be hired in the first year of the
grant, with this increasing to 10 in years 2-4, and then decreasing again to 5 in the final year.
Starting in the year 2000, there was a dramatic increase in the number of nurses with nursing or
nursing-related masters and doctorates (45.8 percent increase in those with master’s degrees and 64.4 percent
increase in those with doctoral degrees), although the numbers are now beginning to plateau (Health
Resources and Services Administration, 2010). Nursing schools, however, continue to report their inability to
fill faculty vacancies, thus limiting the expansion of their degree programs (Fang, 2012). There are many
choices for nurses who are prepared at the master’s level or beyond. Evidence suggests that salary is an
important barrier to faculty recruitment. Positions as quality/safety officers in health care organizations, and
opportunities in the pharmaceutical and insurance industries are only a few of the attractive options that
make faculty recruitment challenging (Aiken et al., 2009; Cleary, McBride, McClure, & Reinhard, 2009).
Academic-practice partnerships, which have become increasingly more popular, have been discussed as one
way to expose practicing clinicians to the role of teacher (Beal, 2012).
We hypothesize that VANA participation as a faculty member would contribute to (1) a decision to
pursue further education and (2) a desire to continue teaching beyond the pilot period.
Methods
As part of the larger national VANA evaluation project we surveyed VANA faculty annually for
three successive years to gather information on a number of dimensions of the faculty role. The surveys were
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conducted via a web based server. Participation was anonymous; small numbers of participants at some sites
required partnership affiliation to be anonymized as well. Data were stored on a secure VA server.
All faculty with a VANA-funded FTE appointment were invited to participate each year. A pre-
notification e-mail was sent 5 days before the actual e-mail inviting them to participate. The invitation email
included a link to the web-based survey. Two reminders were sent out at one week intervals.
The project team designed a 39-item survey, consisting of close-ended questions as well as several
opportunities for comment. The main topic areas covered included nursing credentials, teaching and
employment background, role preparation, satisfaction with role, interactions between stakeholders,
educational mobility and future plans. As the 5-year pilot period came to a close, a possibility arose to extend
funding to all partnerships for one additional year, although it was unclear if participants would want to
continue to maintain their, in many cases, new faculty roles. To understand the consequence of the uncertain
funding scenarios, several items were added to the 2012 instrument regarding the impact of VANA on future
career plans of participating faculty.
We examine the association of VANA with decisions to pursue further education using the second
round of the survey. Faculty from all three cohorts were included for the first time in 2011; the 2011
response rate was better than that in 2012, and the number of responses in 2011 was also higher.
Accordingly, we use data from 2011 to permit more comprehensive analyses. Additionally, using data from
one year rather than pooling the three years eliminates multiple responses from the same respondents. To
examine whether VANA participation as a faculty member would lead to a desire to continue teaching
beyond the pilot period, we used data from the 2012 survey because the questions regarding future career
plans were only included that year as mentioned. The final number of respondents whose data were available
for analyses was 133 (87% response rate) in 2011 and 74 (84% response rate) in 2012.
Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the characteristics of participating faculty members,
their VANA-related roles and responsibilities, and their satisfaction with certain aspects of participation. We
used bivariate and multivariate regression to test whether VANA participation influenced a faculty member’s
decision to further his/her own education, and whether VANA participation influenced a faculty member’s
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desire to continue teaching beyond the VANA pilot program. All statistical analyses were performed using
Stata 12.
The VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System Institutional Review Board approved this study.
Results
Respondent characteristics and VANA activities
The nurses recruited as VANA faculty were diverse. (Table 1) Nearly three-quarter held master’s
degrees, 22 percent held a doctorate, and a small number were baccalaureate nurses. Over one-third were
recruited from the VANA clinical partner, a quarter were recruited from the VANA university partner,
approximately one-fifth from another VA or university, and the remaining quarter from some other
employer. Most VANA faculty had some type of prior academic appointment, with nearly half of the 2011
respondents. Prior faculty appointments were predominately at community colleges. Although the majority
of VANA faculty were relatively new to teaching, a small proportion were very seasoned with more than eight
years of academic experience on average (mean 8.28, SD 8.46, 0.5-40.0). The most common previous
experience was in clinical instruction, although teaching experience in a classroom setting was common as
well. Many of the VANA faculty also had previous experience teaching in simulation laboratories.
In general, the VANA faculty role was more than that of a clinical adjunct1. Substantial teaching time
was spent in the classroom, although faculty were also involved in simulation learning and skill lab training. In
addition to the proportion of their time spent teaching, VANA faculty were also involved in research
activities, administrative activities, and direct patient care. Proportions of VANA time spent in these
activities varied widely (Table 1).
Almost half of all VANA faculty were very satisfied with their role, with 84% in 2011 and 92% in
2012 indicating they were very or somewhat satisfied. Faculty were also generally satisfied with specific
aspects of their roles and were especially satisfied with the amount of autonomy they were allowed in carrying
1 Adjunct Faculty: Two dominant common uses of this title are applied to individuals who contribute in a significant way to an educational program. The
first usage is applied to the non-traditional employee that is, the faculty member who is not on the tenure track and may have restrictions in their exercise of faculty prerogatives in faculty governance issues, often a part-time employee. The second use is applied to those individuals who contribute to the educational program in a sporadic or indirect way (e.g., a vice president of nursing at a major clinical agency who facilitates the educational program and or serves on advisory committees). Other examples of non-salaried contributors to the educational program who may bear the title adjunct faculty are nonpaid preceptors.(West et al., 2009)
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out work responsibilities, the support they received from their VANA colleagues, and the quality of their
students. There were lower levels of satisfaction for the amount of guidance received in developing
curriculum and the availability of administrative assistance. In analysis not reported in the table, we found
that only 29 percent of those with one-half or less of a full time appointment reported being content with
their role.
Seventy eight percent of all VANA faculty did not hold doctoral degrees. Two-thirds of those
without doctoral degrees indicated that they were interested in furthering their education. In the one third
who reported they had no plans to further their nursing education, the primary reasons were advanced age
and pending retirement.
Among those without a doctoral degree, one-third reported that they were either currently enrolled
or admitted into a nursing program towards obtaining a higher degree. Four percent responded that they
were in the process of applying and 29 percent were either in the process of applying or planning on applying
within the next 2 years to such a program.
Of those already pursuing a higher nursing degree, 61 percent were pursuing doctorates. Of those
applying and considering applying, 76 percent were considering a doctorate.
VANA’s impact on the decision to pursue higher education
We analyzed whether respondents who reported that VANA participation influenced their decision
to pursue more education differed from those who reported no influence of VANA on their decisions in
terms of (1) where they were in the enrollment process, (2) their previous teaching experience, and (3) the
locale where most of their VANA time was spent (Table 2). Approximately half (51%) of those who were
enrolled, admitted or actively applying to higher education programs said that they were influenced by their
VANA experience, while nearly 80% of those who were still only considering applying reported being
influenced by their VANA experience (p<0.05). Variations in prior teaching experience were not significantly
associated with differences in whether VANA experience influenced decisions to pursue more education.
Faculty who spent 50 percent of their time or more at the VA were more likely to report participation in
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VANA was a factor in their decision to pursue a higher degree. Nearly three-quarters of VA-based faculty
reported this versus only 43% of school of nursing-based faculty (p<0.05).
We examined whether more exposure to the VANA role would make one more likely to pursue a
higher degree. Exposure was defined as (1) average number of weekly hours spent in the faculty role, (2) the
Full Time Equivalent (FTE) fraction of the faculty appointment, (3) and duration of the appointment. The
FTE fraction was not prescribed by the VANA grant. As a result, role FTEs (less than 0.5-1.0), as well as
number of hours spent in the role (1-60 hours/week) varied widely. Faculty who spent more hours per week
in the VANA role were more likely to have been influenced by their VANA experience in choosing to pursue
a higher degree (OR 1.06, 95% CI [1.02, 1.11], p<0.05) Table 3. Furthermore, those VANA faculty who
were in the VANA faculty role for greater than one year were more likely to be influenced by their VANA
experience in choosing to pursue a higher degree (p<0.05). While those with less than a full time VANA
appointment were less likely to have been influenced by VANA, the difference was not statistically significant.
We also examined whether overall satisfaction with the VANA experience was positively associated
with VANA’s influence on the decision to pursue a higher degree. An increase in overall satisfaction with
VANA was significantly associated with VANA influencing the decision to pursue a higher degree (OR 2.36,
95% CI [1.09, 5.07], p<0.05). (Table 4) When overall satisfaction levels were broken down, the probability of
VANA influencing the desire to pursue further education increased. When respondents were very dissatisfied
with their experience, the probability of VANA influencing the desire to pursue further education is 9
percent, and when a respondent was very satisfied with their experience, the probability increases to 76
percent.
VANA’s impact on desire to continue as faculty after the pilot
VANA faculty expressed interest in continuing to be VANA faculty beyond the pilot period of the
VANA program. Sixty-nine percent said that they would be very interested in staying on as a VANA faculty
member if the program should continue. Fourteen percent reported moderate interest and 11 percent were
minimally interested in staying on. Five percent said that they had no interest at all in continuing in their
VANA faculty role. Of those, the primary reason for not wanting to continue was being close to retirement.
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We examined whether time spent in various role activities predicted VANA’s influence on one’s
desire to continue teaching beyond the pilot phase of VANA. In a multivariate model including time
teaching, time in direct patient care, and time in research (Table 5), only time spent in teaching was a
significant predictor in this multivariate model (OR 1.04, 95% CI [1.01-1.07], p<0.05). At 20 percent time
spent in teaching, the probability of VANA influencing desire to continue teaching was 53 percent; at 80
percent time, the probability increased to 91 percent.
Six measures were positively associated with VANA’s influence on the desire to continue as faculty
beyond the VANA pilot. In bivariate models (Table 6), components significantly associated with the VANA
experience having influenced the desire to be faculty beyond the VANA pilot included support from VANA
colleagues (OR 1.91, 95% CI [1.06, 3.40], p<0.05], the quality of VANA students (OR 5.15, 95% CI [1.82,
14.57], p<0.05), the amount of guidance with curriculum development (OR 8.38, 95% CI [2.15, 36.65],
p<0.01), the availability of administrative support (OR 1.65, 95% CI [1.02, 2.68], p<0.05), support for
improving teaching methods (OR 1.85, 95% CI [1.11, 3.07], p<0.05), and overall satisfaction with VANA
experience (OR 5.23, 95% CI [1.84, 14.8], p<0.01).
Discussion
In this study we explore links between participation in an academic-practice partnership and
decisions regarding educational mobility and future career plans. Consistent with suggestions in the literature,
we found that involvement in VANA partnerships was positively associated with these decisions. (Beal, 2012;
We found that three key features differentiated those who said that their VANA experience did
influence their educational decisions compared with those who said that VANA did not do so: where a
VANA faculty member was in the enrollment process, how much time they had spent in their VANA faculty
role, and the proportion of their time that was spent at the VA facility.
The majority of nurses in our study were candidates for pursuing higher degrees. Among those
already enrolled or admitted into higher degree programs in 2011, the majority said they were not influenced
by their VANA experience. However, the majority of those who were still in the process of applying said
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that they were influenced by VANA. As the 2011 survey was fielded about halfway through the VANA pilot
period, most VANA faculty who were already enrolled in programs would have started the application
process close to the launch of the VANA program, making it unlikely that they could have reported that
VANA influenced their decision. For these faculty, the decision to participate in VANA was made after or
concurrently with the decision to pursue additional education. For those who had not made such a decision
when they became VANA faculty, our findings suggest that the VANA experience contributed to an interest
in pursuing additional education. VANA faculty were more likely to say that the VANA experience
influenced their decision to further their education if they spent longer in their VANA role, much like a dose
response relationship. Although dose response was reflected in both the number of hours and the number of
years spent in the VANA role, the actual allotted full time equivalent (FTE) for the VANA role was not a
determining factor. This finding is consistent with the fact that many individuals in a faculty role often work
many more hours than their actual FTE allotment [Anderson, 1998] and thus number of hours reported
spent in the role is often a better determinant than the actual FTE allotment.
Nurses who held the majority of the VANA clinical faculty positions (i.e. hospital-hired faculty) had
been clinical nurses prior to their employment as VANA faculty. This group likely had less day-to-day
interaction and exposure to the opportunities and potential benefits associated with higher degrees than those
individuals who had previously been immersed in the academic culture (i.e. the faculty who were hired from
the nursing schools). Self-selection should be considered here, as some of the hospital-hired nurses may have
already been interested in higher education and thus self-selected into the VANA pilot. And yet, the finding
would suggest that the VANA experience was more impactful for those hired from the hospital compared to
those already active in the academic arena.
Although it might follow that the amount of prior teaching experience had an impact on further
education decisions, the proportion of both experienced and novice faculty who reported VANA influenced
their decision was about the same, and was not a distinguishing factor. This may reflect the fact that although
many of the VANA faculty had prior teaching experience, the VANA role was their first time actually being
integrated and exposed more fully to the academic culture of the SON where they were engaged.
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Our second major finding was that providing faculty experiences in an academic-practice partnership,
such as VANA, does not guarantee interest in the long term, but we would not expect it to do so. For some,
being faculty for a short time provided the opportunity to sample a potential career departure, but in the end,
a return to clinical nursing practice was welcome by some. Yet, for the majority of those nurses in this study,
exposure to being a VANA faculty member (i.e., the teaching component), seemed to prompt them to want
to continue as faculty. Nurses with appropriate educational credentials have many career paths from which to
choose (Aiken et al., 2009; Cleary et al., 2009), so it is a promising step towards meeting the IOM goals that
exposure to the faculty role, particularly for the novice faculty, seemed to lead to the desire to pursue similar
opportunities in the future.
Our third major finding was that satisfaction with the VANA role, either in general or with certain
aspects, influenced the decision to further one’s education as well as the desire to continue teaching. Several
satisfaction measures were associated with the VANA experience’s influence on the desire to continue as
faculty. These key measures point to the importance of mentorship and support for school of nursing faculty,
support from VANA colleagues, guidance with curriculum development, support for improving teaching
methods, and overall satisfaction. The literature has previously explored the essential inclusion of a
mentorship program into a novice teacher’s first years in academia in order to support retention, particularly
around integration into the academic culture and development of teaching skills (Dunham-Taylor, Lynn,
Moore, McDaniel, & Walker, 2008; Nick et al., 2012), and results reported here further validate their findings.
Our results also point to a larger desire for support from colleagues, in contrast to VANA leadership. This
supports findings in the mentorship literature that focus on well-matched mentor/mentee relationship, where
the mentor comes from a peer-level role rather than an administrative one. (Nick et al, 2012)
Educational progression may have also been facilitated by the faculty development objective of
VANA. This objective required partnerships to develop and implement an orientation and academic
competency program for all VA-based VANA faculty. Academic mentorship by SON faculty was structured
by an individualized needs assessment. Pedagogical theory and application, research and scholarly
dissemination of findings were a key components in the establishment of academic competencies.
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Participation in academic committees and planning were an integral expectation of each faculty member. This
immersion in the academic role oriented new faculty to the educational requirements needed for research and
an academic career and may have influenced VANA faculty in their goal of continuing their education. The
close proximity to graduate education opportunities and active encouragement of mentors may have also
been factors facilitating educational mobility.
Lower salary levels generally offered to academic faculty has been cited as a barrier to entering into
academia (Aiken et al., 2009; Brady, 2010), and yet satisfaction with salary was not a predictor of the decision
to continue to be faculty beyond the pilot. Those faculty who came from the school of nursing setting prior
to the onset of the VANA pilot likely fall into the realm of individuals who understand the salary
discrepancies, but choose to teach as a result of passion for the role (Dunham-Taylor et al., 2008). The
faculty who came from the VA, continued to be paid at their VA salary level, often times at substantially
higher rates than their academic peers. This suggests that paying clinical nurses at their hospital-level pay to
act as faculty may assist in recruiting and retaining these expert nurses in these roles.
Our study has several strengths. Most notably, our study includes outcomes from 15 different
academic-practice partnerships from across the country, a large sample of sites and organizational settings.
Two important limitations were sample size, constrained in part by the number of faculty at each site, and
having to restrict our analyses to a single-year. While the total numbers in each of the survey years used were
not large, response rates in both survey years were high, reducing the risk of sampling bias.
Conclusion
VANA has been a wonderful experience for me and such a developmental role. [As a result] I decided
to go back to school…[The VANA experience has given] me a love for education that will carry
on and I hope to continue to stay involved in nursing education...VANA has been a life changing event
and so grateful for the mentorship from my leadership and faculty at the college…”
- Open comments from a 2011VANA faculty survey respondent
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In order to meet the IOM recommendations (Institute of Medicine, 2011), the nursing profession
will need to find ways to motivate nurses to return to school and stay in faculty positions for the next
generation. Other studies have suggested that academic-practice partnerships may impact the desire to
further one’s education, but none have looked at that as a primary outcome. Our study adds support to what
others have proposed in smaller studies. As the popularity of academic-practice partnerships grows and their
list of benefits is further enumerated, motivating nurses to pursue both higher degrees and faculty roles
should be listed among them.
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Nick, J. M., Delahoyde, T. M., Del Prato, D., Mitchell, C., Ortiz, J., Ottley, C., Young, P., Cannon, S.B., Lasater, K., Reising, D., Siktberg, L. (2012). Best practices in academic mentoring: a model for excellence. Nurs Res Pract, 2012, 937906. doi: 10.1155/2012/937906
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Table 1. Respondent characteristics. Total respondents 2011 survey
Somewhat to very satisfied Neutral to very dissatisfied
111 20
84 15
68 6
91.9 8
Satisfied with…
…amount of autonomy given for carrying out responsibilities^
…support from VANA colleagues* …quality of VANA students*
114 111 111
86 84 84
64 63 68
87 85 92
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…support from VANA leadership* …support for improving teaching methods*
…salary* …availability of administrative support*
…amount of guidance with curriculum development^
95 95 85 71
69
72 72 63 53
52
50 51 60 38
47
68 69 81 51
64
Plans for further education
Enrolled and admitted/not enrolled Applying
Enrolled in a certificate program Considering degree/ certificate program
No plans N/A (already have a doctoral-level degree)
36 4 3 30 31 29
27 3 2 23 23 22
15 5 3 12 23 17
20 7 4 16 31 23
#Categories are not mutually exclusive $Respondents were instructed to make all activities total to 100%. * ‘Somewhat Satisfied’ to ‘Very Satisfied’ ^ ‘Right Amount’ ∞1-2% respondents did not respond to these questions
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Table 2. Differences between those who did and did not say their decision to pursue a higher degree was influenced by VANA participation in terms of enrollment status, previous teaching experience, and locale where most VANA time spent.
Has participation in VANA influenced your decision to pursue a higher degree in nursing? Yes No Total p Enrollment status*
Enrolled/admitted/applying Considering applying
19 (51%) 22 (79%)
18 (49%) 6 (21%)
37 (100%) 28 (100%)
<0.05
Previous teaching experience Experienced†
Novice
12 (63%) 30 (64%)
7 (37%) 17 (36%)
19 (100%) 47 (100%)
ns
Locale where majority of VANA time spent** VA
SON
33 (73%) 9 (43%)
12 (27%) 12 (57%)
45 (100%) 21 (100%)
<0.05
Note. ns = not significant. *X2(1, N=65) = 5.07, p<0.05. †”Experienced” was defined as greater than 2 years teaching experience. **X2(1, N=66) = 5.75, p<0.05.
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Table 3. Influence of role exposure (FTE, VANA hours, and VANA faculty tenure) on decision to pursue a higher degree.
Bivariate regression model OR (SE) 95% CI
p
Number of weekly hours dedicated to VANA role
1.06 (.022) 1.02-1.11
<0.05
Has participation in VANA influenced your decision to pursue a higher degree in nursing? Yes No Total p Length of time as VANA faculty*
Table 4. Bivariate logistic regression model showing whether overall satisfaction with the VANA experience predict VANA’s influence on the decision to pursue a higher degree in nursing. Probabilities of VANA having influenced that decision at various levels of the significant predictors are shown.
Bivariate regression model OR (SE) 95% CI p
VANA satisfaction overall 2.36 (.921)* 1.09-5.07 <0.05
PP† (SE) 95% CI
Probability of VANA influencing decision to pursue further education if…
…very dissatisfied with experience …somewhat dissatisfied with experience
…neither satisfied nor dissatisfied with experience
…somewhat satisfied with experience …very satisfied with experience
.092
.194
.363
.574
.760
-.123-.309 -.091-.481
.106-.620 .435-.712 .622-.899
n/a
†PP = predicted probability
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Table 5. Logistic regression model showing whether time spent in particular aspects of VANA role predict VANA’s influence on one’s desire to continue teaching. Probabilities of VANA having influenced that desire at various percentages of time spent in teaching are shown.
Multivariate regression model OR (SE) 95% CI p
Time spent in teaching Time spent in direct patient care Time spent in research
1.04 (.017) 1.02 (0.19) 1.04 (.027)
1.01-1.07 .986-1.06 .986-1.09
<0.05 ns ns
PP† (SE) 95% CI
Probability of VANA influencing desire to continue teaching past pilot if…
…20% time spent in teaching now …40% time spent in teaching now …60% time spent in teaching now …80% time spent in teaching now
.535 (.148)
.704 (.082)
.833 (.047)
.914 (.040)
.246-.824
.543-.865
.741-.925
.835-.993
n/a
†PP = predicted probability
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Table 6. Bivariate regression models showing whether aspects of role satisfaction predict VANA’s influence on desire to continue as faculty beyond the VANA pilot.
Bivariate regression models OR (SE) 95% CI p VANA satisfaction overall Satisfaction with…
support from VANA colleagues quality of VANA students
amount of autonomy given for carrying out responsibilities
amount of guidance with curriculum development
availability of administrative support support from VANA leadership
