Quick Highlights
U.S. nursing schools reported 1,588 unfilled full-time faculty positions across 863 responding programs (out of 1,075 surveyed), a 7.2% national vacancy rate, according to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing’s October 2025 Special Survey on Vacant Faculty Positions. Schools also indicated a need for about 150 additional positions beyond those already vacant, and 80.9% of vacancies required or preferred a doctoral degree.
If you’ve ever wondered whether a nurse educator credential leads to a real teaching job, or whether you would just be adding a degree to a field with no room for you, this is the data that answers it. Arkansas State University (A-State) builds directly toward this need through its Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) – Nurse Educator and Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) – Education online programs, and the numbers below help explain why nursing schools continue to report faculty vacancies even as they turn away thousands of qualified applicants
The Latest Vacancy Numbers
The American Association of Colleges of Nursing surveyed 1,075 nursing schools for its Special Survey on Vacant Faculty Positions, published October 2025, and 863 schools responded, an 80.3% response rate. Those schools reported 1,588 budgeted full-time faculty vacancies, a 7.2% national vacancy rate, and identified a need for roughly 150 additional positions beyond the vacancies already counted, reflecting demand that current budgets have not yet caught up to.
This faculty gap compounds a broader nursing labor market that remains tight. Acute-care hospitals reported an 8.6% RN vacancy rate in 2025, according to NSI Nursing Solutions’ 2026 National Health Care Retention and RN Staffing Report.
How This Compares to the Longer Trend
| Measure | October 2025 survey | 10-year average (2015-2024) |
|---|---|---|
| National faculty vacancy rate | 7.2% | 7.64% |
| Source | AACN Special Survey on Vacant Faculty Positions (October 2025) | Journal of Professional Nursing (March 2026) |
The current 7.2% rate sits close to, and very slightly below, the 10-year average, which tells a more useful story than any single year’s snapshot. A single year’s figure could reflect a temporary dip or a one-time hiring push, but a rate that tracks within half a percentage point of a decade-long average points to something more durable.
This is not a brief spike but a persistent, structural shortage that has held in roughly the same range for a decade. For someone weighing a move into nursing education, that consistency is itself useful information: the opening isn’t a short-lived response to one rough year, but a standing feature of the job market likely to still be there by the time a graduate nursing degree is finished.
Why Schools Are Having Trouble Filling These Positions
Filling these vacancies is proving difficult for reasons that go beyond a simple shortage of nurses willing to teach. Three factors compound each other:
- The credential bar is high for most open roles: AACN’s current data shows 80.9% of vacancies require or prefer a doctoral degree, which narrows the applicant pool to DNP- and PhD-prepared nurses specifically, a smaller group than the overall RN workforce.
- A wave of retirements is accelerating: The share of nursing faculty at or above retirement age (65 and older) rose from 16.9% in 2017 to 34.2% in 2024, according to research published in the Journal of Nursing Regulation (April 2026), meaning schools are losing experienced faculty faster than new doctorally prepared educators are entering the pipeline.
- Pay works against recruitment at the margin: Nursing Instructors and Teachers, Postsecondary earned a median annual wage of $80,780 as of May 2023, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is often below what the same nurse could earn in an advanced clinical role.
Together, these three pressures explain why so many positions sit open for extended periods rather than filling quickly. That said, the doctoral emphasis running through the numbers above doesn’t mean every path into the classroom requires one.
Important Note
A doctoral degree is preferred or required for the large majority of currently vacant positions, but not all of them. An MSN-prepared nurse educator remains eligible for many clinical instructor, adjunct and some full-time roles, a distinction covered fully in the career-path guide later on this page.
What This Means for Nursing Programs and Applicants
The downstream effect shows up in enrollment, not just faculty headcount. AACN’s 2025-2026 Enrollment and Graduations report found 93,176 qualified applications rejected from baccalaureate and graduate nursing programs, with insufficient faculty cited as a primary reason. That figure describes the scale of the problem across all applicants to nursing programs broadly; it is not a count of nursing faculty applicants specifically, and it should not be read as a one-to-one measure of open teaching positions.
Growing the nursing faculty pipeline is a stated national priority; the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine identified expanding nursing school capacity as essential to meeting future care demand in its 2021 Future of Nursing 2020–2030 report. For a working nurse weighing the move into teaching, the math is simple: earning the credential is often a significant step toward qualifying for nursing faculty roles, though hiring requirements and opportunities vary by institution.
How Nurses Prepare for These Roles
Because the credential that unlocks a teaching role varies by where a nurse is already standing, not every one of these paths requires starting over with a new degree. A-State offers three credential paths into nursing education, each fitting a different starting point:
- BSN, new to teaching: the MSN – Nurse Educator, built around teaching methods, curriculum and a supervised practicum.
- MSN in another specialty: the graduate certificate in nurse education, adding teaching-specific coursework without a second master’s.
- MSN, ready for a terminal degree: the DNP – Education track, which meets the “terminal degree” line that 80.9% of current vacancies specify or prefer.
Each of these three paths can help prepare nurses for educator roles that continue to show demand across many nursing programs. The vacancy data above isn’t a forecast; it describes open positions that exist right now, across degree levels and institution types. The single question most worth asking next is which of these three starting points matches the degree already in hand.
Ready to help close this gap? Explore Arkansas State University Arkansas State University’s online MSN – Nurse Educator and DNP – Education programs and see which credential fits where you are starting from.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many full-time nursing faculty positions were vacant, and when was this counted?
1,588 budgeted full-time positions, across 863 surveyed schools, per AACN’s Special Survey on Vacant Faculty Positions, published October 2025.
What is the difference between the 1,588 vacant positions and the 150 additional positions needed?
The 1,588 figure counts currently budgeted but unfilled faculty positions. The 150 figure reflects positions schools indicated they would need to add beyond that, to meet current student demand, a separate and additional need.
Are doctoral credentials required for every vacant position?
No. AACN’s data shows 80.9% of current vacancies require or prefer a doctoral degree, meaning roughly one in five vacant positions does not carry that requirement.
Does this national vacancy data mean there’s an open faculty job near me right now?
Not necessarily. This is national survey data describing an aggregate shortage. It is not a live job board; confirm current local openings directly with the nursing schools in your area.
How do I start preparing for a nursing faculty role?
Start with your current credential: a BSN points toward the MSN Nurse Educator, an MSN in another specialty points toward the graduate certificate, and an MSN in nursing education points toward the DNP for terminal-degree roles.
Why are so many nursing school applicants being turned away if there’s a faculty shortage?
The two are directly connected: without enough faculty to teach and supervise them, nursing programs cannot expand enrollment even when qualified applicants apply. AACN’s 2025-2026 Enrollment and Graduations report found 93,176 qualified applications rejected from baccalaureate and graduate programs, with insufficient faculty cited as a primary reason.