Other Titles
Educating to Exhaustion: Examining Efforts, Rewards, Burnout, and Intention to Leave Among Full-Time Faculty [Title Slide]
Other Titles
Rapid Presentation Round
Abstract
Background: The nursing faculty shortage is a contributor to the nursing shortage. Intention to leave the full-time faculty role for non-retirement reasons, including poor effort-reward balance or burnout, may be a underacknowledged contributor to the faculty shortage (Leiberg et al., 2025; Malin et al., 2024). The Effort-Reward Imbalance model predicts both burnout and intention to leave as an outcome of poor balance between efforts required by work and rewards obtained through work (Siegrist & Li, 2020). The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between efforts, rewards, burnout, and intention to leave among full-time nursing faculty using the Effort-Reward Imbalance model.
Methods: This cross-sectional survey took place in fall 2024. We included a national sample of full-time nursing faculty recruited via a targeted email campaign to United States nursing education institution administrators. Measures included demographic data, standardized measures of nursing faculty satisfaction with attributes of their faculty jobs, efforts, rewards, burnout, and intention to leave the nursing faculty role within the next 3 years. Structural equation modeling was used to evaluate the relationships between variables.
Results: The sample comprised of N=588 participants, of whom 40.3% reported intention to leave. The SEM had a significant fit with the data, X2=47.389, p< 0.01, CFI=0.993, TLI=0.991, SRMR=0.028. Efforts and rewards (latent variables) both had significant relationships with intention to leave (measured variable), that were mediated by burnout (measured variable). Rewards had the greatest direct and combined effects on intention to leave. Dissatisfaction with the service component of the faculty role had the greatest impact on the rewards latent variable.
Conclusion: Findings demonstrate that faculty satisfaction, workload, rewards, burnout, and intention to leave are intricately linked. Nursing education administrators should recognize these interdependencies when designing solutions to mitigate the faculty shortage. Excessive “institutional housekeeping” in the service component of the faculty role has been found by previous studies to overburden female university faculty and may disproportionately affect nursing faculty (who are majority-female) (Järvinen & Mik-Meyer, 2024; Schlaby et al., 2021). Further research is needed on the potential impact of gendered division of academic labor on nursing faculty dissatisfaction and intention to leave.
Notes
References:
Järvinen, M., & Mik-Meyer, N. (2024). Giving and receiving: Gendered service work in academia. Current Sociology, 73(3), 302-320. https://doi.org/10.1177/00113921231224754
Leiberg, J., Christianson, J., Malin, K., Grabert, L., & Zemlak, J. (2025). Addressing the Nursing Faculty Shortage: Associations Between Burnout and Work Rewards with Intention to Leave. Nursing Education Research Conference, Washington D.C., United States.
Malin, K. J., Zemlak, J., Christianson, J., Leiberg, J., & Grabert, L. (2024). Feasibility and acceptability of studying full-time nurse faculty salaries. BMC Nurs, 23(1), 511. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-024-02186-3
Shalaby, M., Allam, N., & Buttorff, G. J. (2021). Leveling the field: Gender inequity in academia during COVID-19. PS: Political Science & Politics, 54(4), 661-667. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1049096521000615
Siegrist, J., & Li, J. (2020). Effort-Reward Imbalance and Occupational Health. In Handbook of Socioeconomic Determinants of Occupational Health (pp. 355-382). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-31438-5_14
Sigma Membership
Delta Gamma at-Large
Type
Presentation
Format Type
Text-based Document
Study Design/Type
Cross-Sectional
Research Approach
Quantitative Research
Keywords:
Faculty Development, Workforce, Nursing Faculty, Professional Development, Personnel Turnover, Personnel Retention
Recommended Citation
Christianson, Jacqueline; Malin, Kathryn J.; Leiberg, Jessica; Grabert, Lisa; and Zemlak, Jessica, "Examining Efforts, Rewards, Burnout, and Intention to Leave Among Full-Time Nursing Faculty" (2026). Creating Healthy Work Environments (CHWE). 59.
https://www.sigmarepository.org/chwe/2026/presentations_2026/59
Conference Name
Creating Healthy Work Environments
Conference Host
Sigma Theta Tau International
Conference Location
Washington, DC, USA
Conference Year
2026
Rights Holder
All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record. All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository. All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.
Review Type
Abstract Review Only: Reviewed by Event Host
Acquisition
Proxy-submission
Date of Issue
2026-04-29
Funder
National League for Nursing
Examining Efforts, Rewards, Burnout, and Intention to Leave Among Full-Time Nursing Faculty
Washington, DC, USA
Background: The nursing faculty shortage is a contributor to the nursing shortage. Intention to leave the full-time faculty role for non-retirement reasons, including poor effort-reward balance or burnout, may be a underacknowledged contributor to the faculty shortage (Leiberg et al., 2025; Malin et al., 2024). The Effort-Reward Imbalance model predicts both burnout and intention to leave as an outcome of poor balance between efforts required by work and rewards obtained through work (Siegrist & Li, 2020). The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between efforts, rewards, burnout, and intention to leave among full-time nursing faculty using the Effort-Reward Imbalance model.
Methods: This cross-sectional survey took place in fall 2024. We included a national sample of full-time nursing faculty recruited via a targeted email campaign to United States nursing education institution administrators. Measures included demographic data, standardized measures of nursing faculty satisfaction with attributes of their faculty jobs, efforts, rewards, burnout, and intention to leave the nursing faculty role within the next 3 years. Structural equation modeling was used to evaluate the relationships between variables.
Results: The sample comprised of N=588 participants, of whom 40.3% reported intention to leave. The SEM had a significant fit with the data, X2=47.389, p< 0.01, CFI=0.993, TLI=0.991, SRMR=0.028. Efforts and rewards (latent variables) both had significant relationships with intention to leave (measured variable), that were mediated by burnout (measured variable). Rewards had the greatest direct and combined effects on intention to leave. Dissatisfaction with the service component of the faculty role had the greatest impact on the rewards latent variable.
Conclusion: Findings demonstrate that faculty satisfaction, workload, rewards, burnout, and intention to leave are intricately linked. Nursing education administrators should recognize these interdependencies when designing solutions to mitigate the faculty shortage. Excessive “institutional housekeeping” in the service component of the faculty role has been found by previous studies to overburden female university faculty and may disproportionately affect nursing faculty (who are majority-female) (Järvinen & Mik-Meyer, 2024; Schlaby et al., 2021). Further research is needed on the potential impact of gendered division of academic labor on nursing faculty dissatisfaction and intention to leave.
Description
The nursing faculty shortage is a contributor to the nursing shortage. Intention to leave the full-time faculty role for non-retirement reasons, including poor effort-reward balance or burnout, may be a underacknowledged contributor to the faculty shortage. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between efforts, rewards, burnout, and intention to leave among full-time nursing faculty using the Effort-Reward Imbalance model.