Who Will Teach the Teachers? The Crisis of Nurse Educator Shortage and What It Means for Black Nurses

By Black Nurses Week® • Published November 8, 2025

We can’t graduate more nurses without enough people to teach them. Across the country, schools are turning away qualified applicants because there aren’t enough nurse educators, clinical placements, or funded seats to meet demand. That bottleneck slows the entire pipeline, especially for Black nurses seeking entry, advancement, and leadership.

What’s happening—and why it matters

The American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) reports that U.S. nursing programs turned away 65,766 qualified applications in 2023 due to limited faculty, preceptors, classroom space, and budget constraints. Graduate pathways—the ones that create future educators—also saw thousands of qualified applications denied, with AACN noting 5,491 turned away from master’s and 4,461 from doctoral programs in 2023 alone, citing faculty and clinical capacity shortfalls. Source.

Why the educator shortage persists

• Pay and parity: Many schools require or prefer doctorally prepared faculty, but academic salaries often lag behind advanced clinical roles making recruitment and retention tough. (faculty vacancy data)
• Burnout and workload: Heavy teaching loads, accreditation requirements, and limited support discourage new educators and accelerate retirements.
• Pipeline pressure: When master’s and doctoral applicants are turned away, the future pool of nurse educators shrinks, compounding the cycle. (AACN)
• Clinical site scarcity: Fewer preceptors and placements means fewer seats regardless of student demand.

Equity lens: why this hits Black nurses harder

Capacity caps disproportionately affect underrepresented students. When seats are scarce and pathways to graduate study narrow, the profession loses future Black APRNs, faculty, and deans—the very leaders needed to diversify classrooms, curricula, and clinical decision-making. The result: fewer Black nurses teaching, precepting, and shaping policy slowing progress on representation and health equity.

Evidence & expert calls to action

National nursing and education journals point to multi-sector solutions—public, business, and academic—to relieve the bottleneck:

• Engage employers and systems: Co-fund faculty lines, shared clinical faculty, and preceptor stipends. (OJIN/ANA 2024)
• Incentivize the pipeline: Scholarships, loan-forgiveness, and salary supports tied to academic service can attract clinicians into education roles. (OJIN/ANA 2024)
• Protect graduate capacity: Avoid policy changes that limit affordable financing for master’s, DNP, CRNA, and PhD students—future educators depend on these pathways.

What BNW supports

• Faculty investment: State and system funding to expand nurse educator roles, with salary parity to attract and retain talent.
• Preceptor support: Stipends/tax credits and formal recognition for clinical teaching time.
• Targeted scholarships: Aid for Black nurses pursuing master’s, DNP, PhD, and educator certificates.
• Academic-practice partnerships: Joint appointments so expert clinicians can teach without a pay cut.

What you can do right now

1. If you’re faculty or leadership: Advocate for funded lines, grow preceptor networks, and create bridge roles for practicing APRNs.
2. If you’re a clinician considering teaching: Explore adjunct/affiliate options while keeping your clinical role—then ladder up.
3. If you’re a student: Ask schools about educator tracks, teaching practicums, and mentorship into faculty roles.

Question for the BNW community

Have you seen qualified applicants turned away from nursing programs due to capacity? What solutions would help your school or hospital expand seats without burning out educators?