ICN Policy Brief - Nursing education faculty shortage

Nurse educators are essential to building the future nursing workforce through student education, evidence generation, and career development. Yet the global nursing shortage threatens the availability of qualified faculty, while the current educator workforce faces challenges such as ageing, inadequate compensation, and limited institutional support. Many nurses encounter barriers when transitioning into academic roles, including a lack of pedagogical training and burnout.

Despite sustained policy attention, significant barriers remain to recruiting and retaining nurse educators and expanding nursing education capacity. Both the State of the World’s Nursing 2025 report and ICN’s Charter for Change identify high-quality education systems and workforce self-sufficiency as central to meeting future health workforce needs. This policy brief provides an overview of the key issues and outlines policy considerations to support a stable and sustainable nurse educator pipeline through competency standards, fair compensation and continuing professional development.