| The need for faculty to reform nursing education to produce baccalaureate nursing graduates who are more competent in the delivery of community-focused care is a factor contributing to nursing faculty role strain. The major theoretical framework guiding the study was role theory supported by Goode's (1960, 1973) theory of role strain. A correlational design was used to explore the relationships among nursing education reform factors and undergraduate nursing faculty role strain. Nursing education reform factors were measured using a 48-item Nursing Education Reform Instrument with four subscales: curriculum development, faculty restructuring, technology use, and interdisciplinary focus on teaching, practice, and research. This instrument was developed by the researcher.;Content validity of the research instrument was established by a panel of experts, and initial construct reliability was established by a pilot test. Mobily's (1988) 44-item Role Strain Scale was used to measure role ambiguity, role overload, role underqualification, and role incongruity. Demographic data were collected to provide a description of the sample of 127 nursing faculty with a major teaching assignment in a baccalaureate nursing program. The sample were faculty volunteers from a list of randomly selected National League for Nursing Accreditation Commission (NLNAC) accredited baccalaureate degree nursing programs representing the four geographical regions identified by NLNAC. Multiple regression analyses were used to identify the nursing education reform factors that best predict each of the components of role strain and total role strain in undergraduate nursing faculty.;The findings of this study revealed a significant relationship among the nursing education reform factors and role strain. The linear combination of faculty restructuring, technology use, and interdisciplinary focus on role predicted total role strain in undergraduate nursing faculty better than any single factor alone, accounting for 42.6% of the variance in total role strain. Faculty restructuring was the best predictor of role strain. It entered on the first step of the stepwise multiple regression analyses for each of the components of role strain as well as total role strain. The reform factors of interdisciplinary focus on role and technology use were the next best predictors of role strain. |
