Background

The nursing faculty shortage has led to an increasing number of master's-prepared clinical nurse experts becoming nursing faculty to teach prelicensure nursing students, often without adequate preparation for the complex specialized role of an academic nurse educator.

Method

A hermeneutic phenomenological qualitative study was designed to gain insight about novice nursing faculty's experience in academia, to examine their perceptions of facilitators and barriers to the development of nurse educators' practice competence, and to identify transformative learning experiences related to novice faculty development. The data consisted of audio recordings and verbatim transcripts of interviews, along with journal data describing day-to-day experiences as novice nurse academics. Data were analyzed using Moustakas' seven-step process.

Results

Facilitators and barriers, along with characteristics of transformative learning experiences, were identified. An essential combination of facilitating factors, mentorship, and internship programs was discovered.

Conclusion

Internship programs are a necessary link in creating academic environments that contribute to the development of competence in novice nursing faculty. [