School of Nursing: Policy on Faculty Workload

Unit Policy

Title

School of Nursing: Policy on Faculty Workload

Introduction

Purpose

This policy provides a foundation for a system that equitably assigns workload for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (“University”), School of Nursing (“SON” or “School”) faculty.

The School and its academic and practice environments change rapidly. Faculty are challenged to respond flexibly and proactively to the changes, balancing these forces with those derived from traditional academic values. Moreover, because the success of the School depends on the talents and passions of its faculty -- individually and collectively – how we address current and future challenges will help distinguish our important work to educate and prepare the future nursing workforce, as nursing operates independent of other healthcare disciplines with varying roles and responsibilities.

The SON faculty play a pivotal role in shaping the future of healthcare through teaching, research/scholarship, and service/practice, the University and the SON’s tripartite mission. Understanding and managing the workload of faculty is crucial for ensuring faculty effectiveness and well-being. Therefore, an effective and efficient Faculty Workload Management Process is necessary to provide straightforward guidelines for a system that equitably assigns workload. What follows are principles and guidelines, which are subject to adjustment as faculty, SON units, and School needs fluctuate. Efforts are to be made in the workload assignment process to leverage, to the extent possible, each faculty member’s strengths, expertise, interests, and experience, recognizing that expectations will vary over time and across one’s career trajectory.

We recognize and value the diverse contributions of faculty members. SON will therefore foster a supportive academic environment that encourages professional growth and satisfaction. Additionally, an equitable distribution of workload among faculty can enhance faculty engagement, ultimately benefiting faculty members, their students, and the SON. An effective workload management process requires careful consideration of various factors, including faculty expertise, institutional resources, and accreditation standards. The desired outcome of the workload management process is to achieve the mission of the SON and the professional goals of faculty members.

Principles

Within the structure of UNC-Chapel Hill, the SON shares goals with the University when considering faculty work by striving to:

1. Meet the needs of students and stakeholders
2. Facilitate transparency and accountability about their performance to the public
3. Communicate clear and equitable expectations and guidelines
4. Support the University’s primary and enduring focus on enhancing student learning experiences

We believe a faculty workload management process should foster equity within and across faculty ranks and titles (fixed term/teaching faculty and tenured/tenure track faculty). Assignments are expected to be made fairly and assumed responsibly. All faculty, irrespective of their rank and title, should produce and/or disseminate scholarly work in some capacity.

The University expects the equivalent of 24 contact hours. This expectation includes time for teaching, research, and service (which is inclusive of service to the University, the SON, the community, and professional organizations), clinical practice, and administration. Modifications are made for tenured faculty who are expected to have funded research programs and junior tenure-track faculty. The overall workload categories in the School of Nursing, at UNC-Chapel Hill include:

• Teaching
• Research and Scholarship
• Service
• Clinical Practice
• Administration

Scope

This Policy is applicable to all full-time SON faculty members with appointments longer than one year, including tenured, tenure-track, and fixed- term faculty members.

Policy

Policy Statement

Faculty Workload

Teaching

Consistent with G.S. 116-1(b), teaching and instruction are the central responsibilities of the UNC System, UNC-Chapel Hill, and the SON and form a critical base of workload expectations for faculty. In addition to organized courses, the faculty member’s instructional workload also includes, but is not limited to, other instructional efforts such as developing materials for a new course, updating materials for an existing course, weekly course preparation activities, developing courseware or other materials for technology-based instruction, supervising undergraduate research and masters’ theses and doctoral dissertations, directing students in co-curricular activities, supervision of teaching assistants, supervision of internships, academic advising, mentoring, curriculum development, and other activities that support student success. Teaching workload should reflect the varied aspects of teaching which include class size, new offerings, modality, coordination, contact hours, exams, technological innovations, and other relevant characteristics of the assignment.

Faculty share their teaching preferences with academic leaders. While faculty interests and preferences are considered when making teaching assignments, assigning the most qualified faculty to teach courses in each program will remain the highest priority when making teaching assignments.

Research/Scholarship

Faculty members engage in the work of discovering, disseminating, and applying knowledge and professional expertise. These activities may include (but are not limited to) working in laboratories, studios, clinical or community settings; conducting empirical and/or theoretical research; engaging in development or translational work; and/or producing creative works. Toward that end, faculty write articles, books, monographs, and grant proposals; present their expertise in varied settings; develop intellectual property; edit scholarly journals; and/or direct centers and institutes. These research/scholarly activities have significant implications for teaching. They enable faculty members to design course materials that reflect their respective fields’ state-of-the-art and cutting-edge knowledge, and, most importantly, they expose our students to research leaders in the field.

Service

As a nationally ranked nursing program housed within a public university, the SON provides substantial benefits to the people and the state of North Carolina. Faculty members engage in service activities that advance the institution’s work and the SON’s role in supporting North Carolina. Faculty service work may include activities that enhance the scholarly life of the University or the discipline of Nursing, improve the quality of life and health of communities, and/or promote the general welfare of the institution, professional and academic societies, the nation, the state, and the local community. Service examples include membership on committees, leadership roles and responsibilities, leading SON events, and other relevant activities.

Clinical Practice

Nursing is a practice discipline, and many of our faculty continue to provide clinical care to individuals, families, and communities in various settings (including, but not limited to, health care institutions, community-based health centers,  veterans’ health facilities, federally qualified health centers, and/or mobile health services) across the state of North Carolina. Engagement in clinical practice enables our faculty to keep their professional practice updated, which informs their teaching and research/scholarship. It also enables faculty to provide rich mentorship and educational content to our students. Faculty members who engage in practice may be assigned workload to cover their clinical practice time based on the nature of their professional practice.

Administration

Faculty members may also be assigned administrative responsibilities, including but not limited to, senior associate dean, associate dean, assistant dean, Department/Division Chair, program director, and center director. The means and extent by which administrative responsibilities count toward a faculty member’s total workload will be specified based on institutional policies and scope of work.

Faculty Workload Categories and Units

Research, Service, Practice, Administrative and Educational Activities

The workload unit for funded activities will be honored based on the percentage of time allocated by the grant/contract agreement. Workload for administrative activities will be honored based on the percentage of time allocated by the Dean.

Determination of Workload Assignments

Assumption

The process will be transparent and based on documented rationale that could be discussed, if needed.

• A total faculty assignment is comprised of some combination of teaching (classroom, clinical, and/or continuing education), research/scholarship, advisement, service, clinical practice, and/or administration as outlined above.
• Consideration in determining total workload may be given for extraordinary faculty effort required (i.e., effort required beyond baseline expectations) in specific areas. What follows are examples but not an exhaustive list of activities that might warrant an alteration in the recommended workload:
  • Research/Scholarship - (e.g., grant writing, research program development, dissemination of research/scholarship via publications or conference presentations, extensive mentoring of others, and any other relevant activities for the year.)
  • Teaching -- (e.g., class size, new offering, modality, coordination, contact hours, grant writing, innovative teaching and program development, comprehensive exams, and other relevant characteristics of the teaching assignment.) Contractual arrangements - (e.g., practice, administrative responsibilities, serving as the chair of a SON committee with extensive expectations)
  • Service - (e.g., membership on multiple committees or on committees with particularly high-intensity work, leadership roles and responsibilities, leading SON events such as the end of the year celebrations, North Carolina Area Health Education Center (“AHEC”) Technical Assistance and non-reimbursed practice, other relevant activities)
  • Clinical Practice – faculty members may engage in nursing or advanced practice nursing clinical engagement with patients, families, and/or communities (e.g., through contractual agreements between the School of Nursing and relevant healthcare institutions).
  • Administration – (e.g., faculty may engage in contracted time-limited or long-term administrative roles within the School of Nursing or at the university level).

Note: Continuing Education (“CE”) and AHEC will work with the Chairs to obtain the teaching/technical assistance that they need throughout the year; unreimbursed AHEC and CE teaching time will be considered in overall workload.

Faculty workloads less than 100% will be rounded up to the nearest 5%.

Annual Workload Planning Process

For each academic year:

Appeal Process

If a faculty member has an issue with their assigned workload, the following process will be followed to reach a resolution:

1. The faculty member appeals in writing to the Academic Assistant Dean and Chair within 30 days of receiving the workload assignment. The faculty member will have the opportunity to meet with the Assistant Dean and Chair to discuss concerns submitted in writing.
2. The Academic Assistant Dean and Chair take the appeal into consideration.
   1. This may include:
      1. Reviewing assignments across divisions with the other Academic Associate Deans.
      2. Considering the challenged assignment in the context of other assignments and previous documentation of workload negotiations.
3. The Academic Assistant Dean and Chair work together to document the rationale and outcome of the appeal and present it to the faculty member within 15 business days
4. If the faculty member is still not satisfied, they may appeal in writing only to the "Arbitration Committee" within 10 business days of receiving the decision.

Arbitration Committee

The Arbitration Committee is established at the time of appeal. The Arbitration Committee will receive in writing the original faculty appeal document, the document describing the outcome of the appeal as developed by the Academic Assistant Dean and the Department/Division Chair, and the response/appeal from the faculty member. The Arbitration Committee consists of the following members:

• A fixed-term faculty
• A tenure-track faculty
• A Department Chair or administrator (not associated with the relevant workload assignment being appealed)
• Academic Assistant Dean/Associate Dean (not associated with the relevant workload assignment being appealed)
• The Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs

Volunteers will be requested via email sent to the faculty from the Senior Associate Dean of Academic Affair to fill the fixed-term and tenure-track faculty positions. If more than one faculty member volunteers for a position, the member will be selected using a random mechanism. Members must have no conflict of interest in the appeal or vested interest in a specific outcome. The Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs will approve and appoint the fixed-term and tenure-track faculty members based on the random selection/no conflict of interest framework.

The decision of the Arbitration Committee shall be final.

Annual Faculty Evaluation

The SON faculty evaluation process begins in January and concludes no later than June 30 each year. The evaluation period is based on activities completed between January and December of the previous calendar year. Annual evaluations are completed in writing, apply to every SON faculty member (regardless of tenure status), cover all areas of a faculty member’s duties, and occur before salary increase recommendations. Annual faculty evaluations do not replace the tenure or post-tenure review process.

All faculty will receive standardized instructions for completing the process from the Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, which include:

• Completion of a self-evaluation,
• Reflection on goals from previous years,
• Achievement of goals,
• Description of one-year and five-year goals, and
• Evaluation of performance, contributions, and accomplishments for year based on the faculty member’s established work plan.

Evaluation criteria are consistent with the assigned duties of individual faculty members. The Department/Division Chair or Dean will evaluate the faculty member's performance based on their approved work plan. The Department/Division Chair or Dean will provide any faculty member rated as "Not Meeting" on one or more of their agreed-upon performance goals with a "Faculty Success Plan" to get them back on track.

In accordance with the University’s Faculty Workload Policy, the Faculty Success Plan will include:

• Specific steps designed to lead to improvement;
• Targeted resources the faculty member can use to help them improve (e.g., Center for Faculty Excellence, etc.);
• A specific timeline during which the Department/Division Chair expects the faculty member’s performance to improve; and
• A clear statement of consequences should improvement not occur within the designated timeline.

Faculty Success Plans will be approved in writing by the faculty member’s second-level supervisor.

Related Requirements

External Regulations

• UNC System Policy 400.3.4 - Faculty Workload Policy
• UNC System Regulation 400.3.4 [R] - Faculty Workload Regulation
• UNC-Chapel Hill Faculty Workload Policy

Unit Policies, Standards, and Procedures

• School of Nursing Appointment, Promotion, and Tenure Manual

Contact Information

Primary Contact

Name: Cheryl Giscombe, Interim Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs

Telephone: 919-966-9905

Email: cheryl.giscombe@unc.edu