The Cuyahoga County Healthcare Sector Partnership, in collaboration with Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals, is pioneering a transformative initiative to combat the pervasive shortage of nursing clinical faculty that has long hindered nursing education in the United States. This strategic endeavor, titled the Nursing Clinical Adjunct Faculty Initiative, targets a critical bottleneck in the healthcare workforce pipeline by empowering seasoned clinical nurses to transition into educational roles. As the demand for qualified nurses escalates nationally, the scarcity of skilled educators capable of delivering hands-on clinical training has emerged as a significant obstacle, impeding nursing schools’ ability to expand enrollment and adequately prepare future professionals.
This innovative initiative is supported financially by Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals and involves the systematic identification and intensive training of selected clinical nursing staff to serve as adjunct faculty members. Prospective educators will participate in rigorous clinical faculty boot camps commencing in the summer of 2025. These boot camps are designed to equip clinical nurses with the pedagogical competencies necessary for effective nursing instruction, emphasizing best practices for clinical teaching, student evaluation methodologies, and curriculum integration. By bridging the experiential knowledge of frontline nursing professionals with robust educational techniques, the program aims to elevate the quality of clinical education delivered to nursing students.
The genesis of this program reflects a growing recognition among healthcare leaders and educators of the interdependent relationship between clinical expertise and academic instruction. By mobilizing experienced clinical staff within two of the region’s leading health systems—Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals—the initiative leverages existing institutional resources to address an often overlooked yet vital component of workforce development. The integration of clinical practice and educational roles is envisioned to foster a dynamic interchange of contemporary knowledge, thereby enriching nursing curricula and subsequent patient care outcomes.
Addressing the nursing educator shortage is a multifaceted challenge that involves not only expanding faculty numbers but also ensuring sustainable and high-quality education delivery. To this end, the initiative includes collaborations with sixteen regional nursing schools, creating an unprecedented network that enhances clinical rotation capacity while simultaneously distributing faculty responsibilities, thus alleviating burnout among educators. This collaborative framework embodies a systems approach, aligning health systems, education providers, and workforce development partners toward a unified goal of scaling and improving nursing education.
The clinical faculty boot camps are structured as immersive, evidence-based training sessions incorporating adult learning principles and clinical teaching methodologies tailored specifically for the nursing profession. These sessions will prepare adjunct faculty to navigate the complexities of clinical instruction, including facilitating critical thinking, fostering clinical judgment, and managing diverse learner needs in fast-paced healthcare environments. The faculty boot camps anticipate equipping adjunct instructors with competencies essential for mentorship, assessment, and feedback—skills that directly influence the readiness and competence of nursing graduates entering the workforce.
This initiative also strategically confronts the issue of student waitlists in nursing programs by augmenting clinical faculty availability, which directly correlates with increased clinical placement opportunities. Given that clinical rotations constitute a mandatory component of nursing education, insufficient clinical faculty often results in limited enrollment capacities and extended wait times for students. By increasing the pool of qualified adjunct faculty, the program aims to streamline clinical education pathways, thereby enabling nursing schools to admit more students and expedite their progression toward licensure and employment.
Furthermore, the initiative’s design addresses another critical workforce issue: educator burnout. Clinical nursing faculty often face competing demands from both their educational duties and clinical responsibilities, which can lead to job dissatisfaction and turnover. By cultivating a broader base of adjunct faculty drawn from clinical staff, teaching responsibilities can be more equitably distributed. This redistribution not only improves faculty work-life balance but also maintains high standards of clinical education through sustained faculty engagement.
The implications of this program extend beyond immediate nursing faculty shortages. It embodies a replicable model that other healthcare disciplines with educator deficits might emulate, lending itself to a comprehensive reshaping of clinical education ecosystems across multiple health professions. By formalizing pathways for practitioners to acquire academic roles within clinical practice settings, the initiative advances a professional development trajectory that reinforces lifelong learning and career diversification.
In the context of regional workforce development, the program exemplifies proactive collaboration between leading health systems and educational institutions, coordinated by the Healthcare Sector Partnership facilitated by New Bridge Cleveland and New Growth Group. This inter-organizational affiliation not only streamlines resource sharing and joint strategy efforts but also integrates diverse stakeholders—employers, educators, policy makers, and funders—into a cohesive effort to sustain healthcare workforce growth amid evolving public health demands.
Scheduled boot camps will be held at strategic locations including Cleveland Clinic Independence Family Health Center and the University Hospitals Management Services Center in Shaker Heights between June and August 2025. These sessions will serve as the inaugural training opportunities aimed at preparing the first cohorts of adjunct clinical faculty members, setting the stage for subsequent phases of the initiative that envision scaling up to additional provider specialties and clinical roles.
By addressing both quantity and quality in the preparation of nursing educators, this initiative sets a precedent for systemic innovation in healthcare workforce training. It not only mitigates immediate capacity constraints within nursing education programs but also enriches the educational experience by embedding real-world clinical insights into student learning. This cross-pollination enhances students’ clinical readiness and ultimately contributes to improved patient outcomes and healthcare system resilience.
The Nursing Clinical Adjunct Faculty Initiative signifies a critical juncture where healthcare practice and academic instruction coalesce to confront a national challenge with localized solutions. Its focus on sustainability, quality enhancement, and collaborative engagement demonstrates a coherent strategy that could serve as a blueprint for similar efforts across the nation, transforming how nursing and allied health professions address workforce development in the years to come.
Subject of Research: Nursing education capacity expansion and clinical faculty shortage solutions
Article Title: Cleveland’s New Nursing Faculty Initiative Tackles Educator Shortage Through Clinical Staff Training
News Publication Date: Not specified in the source content
Web References: https://cchsp.org/initiatives/nursing-clinical-adjunct-faculty/
Keywords: Nursing, Educational programs, Students, Clinical faculty shortage, Nursing workforce development
