The health system has partnered with Huntsville, Texas-based Sam Houston State University and Austin-based University of Texas on a hybrid model in which nurses can split their time between bedside clinical care and teaching, working two days a week on their unit and another day as a faculty member.
“We’re having a lot of success in this space and are actually looking to grow this,” Bryan Sisk, DNP, RN, senior vice president and chief nursing executive at Memorial Hermann, told Becker’s.
The health system recently completed its first semester using the shared faculty model with Sam Houston and plans to expand to the University of Texas next semester. Early feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, according to Dr. Sisk. The model is the result of conversations that emerged through Memorial Hermann’s Institute for Nursing Excellence, which was created in 2022 to better understand how nurses want to work and explore what would attract them to educator roles.
“It may not be a full-time faculty role that is appealing to individuals,” Dr. Sisk said. “It’s this part-time relationship that we hear a lot about, and [nurses are] giving us really solid feedback in that space.”
An insufficient supply of faculty, preceptors and clinical placement sites is considered a core driver of the nation’s nursing shortage. In 2023, U.S. nursing schools turned away nearly 66,000 qualified applications primarily due to deficits in the nurse educator space. Historically, lower pay and rigid career pathways are key factors that have deterred nurses from pursuing full-time faculty roles. National nursing groups point to shared faculty positions and stronger academic-practice partnerships as a way to grow the educator pipeline.
At Memorial Hermann, leaders are closely monitoring the shared faculty model’s effect on student experience, faculty engagement and preceptor workload. So far, early signs are promising.
“A faculty member who is also a member of your staff knows what students need, where they are in their program and they’re already an integrated member of your team,” Dr. Sisk said. This familiarity and support eases the burden on preceptors at the bedside, who typically are responsible for onboarding students with varying levels of readiness from multiple schools.
As health systems intensify efforts to grow the nursing workforce, Dr. Sisk emphasized the importance of designing solutions that improve the experience for all stakeholders.
“How do we work differently to make the clinical environment more appealing to both the nursing students, where they have a great experience while they’re on the unit, while not forgetting about our staff and the work that they do in their preceptor arrangement along with the nursing faculty,” he said.