com, the median salary across advanced practice registered nurse roles is $120,000. By contrast, AACN reported in March 2022 that the average salary for a master’s-prepared professor in schools of nursing is $87,325. Payment structures widen the disparity. Nurses are paid hourly; nursing educators draw a salary. That means any extra work outside the contract — like prepping courses, attending orientations or reassuring anxious students — is unpaid. Oregon has one of the largest pay gaps between nursing faculty and registered nurses, according to the OLDC study. This makes it easier to lure even the most dedicated faculty away. “Even if nurses want to get into academic nursing, the health systems are so desperate for clinicians that they are offering nurses their dream jobs, and I’m losing faculty,” laments Dean Shillam. She reports losing four faculty members this year alone to positions that she admits make her a bit envious. “They are landing fully remote telehealth jobs or working just three days a week in patient intake, receiving full benefits, and making one and a half times more.” Why is nursing-educator pay so low, particularly when compared with what medical educators — the professionals who teach doctors — make? Medical education is supplemented by Medicare. Nursing is not, answers Dean Shillam. And why is that? “Because physicians have more influence in Medicare funding decisions and nursing doesn’t have the same level of influence and impact in how nursing education could be equitably funded.” So the nursing-education system is built on the underlying expectation of unpaid labor. Shillam is not ready to call this situation straight-up misogyny but will admit that “historically, physicians were predominantly male and have driven these policies, whereas nurses were predominantly and still are majority female.” STRUCTURAL INEQUITIES ASIDE, Oregon’s nursing schools and legislators are working to find a solution. PCC is expanding its programs, adding options like Certified Nursing Assistant and Licensed Practical Nurse to its course list. These easier-to- obtain certifications make nursing accessible to students who need to start their careers sooner. The move will hopefully ease labor shortages while giving students a stepping stone to the next level. PCC is also opening a brand-new, stateof-the-art nursing education simulation lab at its Sylvania campus. This larger space, filled with sophisticated equipment like simulation mannequins, will make room for another cohort of students, bumping up PCC’s class size from 32 to 40. Oregon Health & Science University is hard at work implementing its 30-30-30 plan. Funded in March of last year, the $45 million investment aims to increase the number of clinicians graduated by 30% and increase student diversity by 30% by the year 2030. The money includes an extra $20 million per year to expand class sizes and a one-time $25 million to kick-start the OHSU Opportunity Fund. This money will go to tuition assistance, loan repayment and other resources needed to recruit and retain a more diverse class of learners. “We have nurses who are interested in advanced degrees and thinking about taking education coursework that would allow them to teach,” says OHSU’s School of Nursing Dean Bakewell-Sachs. “The 30-3030 plan is seeking to meet workforce needs for nurses and other professions and seeking to establish a long-term solution.” The Opportunity Fund, according to Bakewell-Sachs, is about “building the workforce of the future. We want to align workforces to mirror society. If we increase the diversity of our students, we want to have faculty to align with that as well.” OHSU also established the Oregon Nursing Education Academy to expand the ranks of preceptors and clinical nursing faculty. This program hopes to train a total of 63 faculty and 92 preceptors from Oregon, Idaho, “Even if nurses want to get into academic nursing, the health systems are so desperate for clinicians that they are offering nurses their dream jobs, and I’m losing faculty.” CASEY SHILLAM, DEAN OF SCHOOL OF NURSING & HEALTH INNOVATIONS, UNIVERSITY OF PORTLAND The Health Technology building at PCC Sylvania JASON E. KAPLAN 24
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