When I accepted my first faculty position, I thought I understood the job: I would teach. Then I received my first workload assignment. There was something about credit hours, clinical ratios, and committee meetings, and I stared at it the way a new grad stares at a 12-lead EKG for the first time. I recognized the words, but not in those particular combinations. Nobody explains faculty workload to clinicians before they make the jump.

There is simultaneously a documented nursing faculty shortage and a competitive job market for faculty positions. These two things are not mutually exclusive, and understanding why they coexist is the first step to navigating the search more strategically.