This is a unique time in nursing history. There has been a shortage of nurses in our country which started in 2002 and was predicted to last until 2020 (Murray, 2002). Although nursing shortages occur periodically in the nursing profession, the current shortage has been prolonged and extended. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' (BLS) Employment Projections 2019–2029, healthcare is expected to be the top growing field until 2029 (2020). Nursing shortages occur when the demand for nursing services exceeds the supply of nurses. The increased demand for nurses is directly related to the increased demand for caring for the aging population, longer life expectancy and the continued increase in people with chronic illness (BLS, 2020). The number of adults over age 65 in the United States (U.S.) is expected to be over 82 million by 2030 (AACN, 2020). Eighty percent of older adults experience chronic illness and one in five of this population report having a disability which leads to an increased use of healthcare services (Tabloski, 2014).

It would seem the best solution to the nursing shortage would be to enroll more students into nursing programs. Unfortunately, in 2019, U.S. nursing schools were unable to enroll over 80,000 qualified students due to a lack of faculty, clinical sites, preceptors, classroom space and budget constraints (AACN, 2020). Most of the nursing programs surveyed indicated that the lack of faculty was the main reason for limiting their enrollment (AACN, 2020). A survey of 892 nursing programs showed a 7.2 % vacancy rate for nursing faculty and nearly 90 % of the vacancies required a doctoral degree (AACN, 2020). Many nursing faculty members are also part of the Baby Boomer generation, and it is likely that 73.9 % of nurse educators will retire in the next 10–15 years (Tourangeau et al., 2014). Although retirement will be a likely cause for nurses and nurse educators to leave the field there are other factors that lead to low job satisfaction and intent to leave. Incivility and workplace violence is one such factor.

Nursing education has not been immune to incivility. Several studies have examined incivility in nursing programs and have shown that between 50 % and 89 % of nursing students and nursing faculty report at least one incident of incivility (Atmiller, 2012; Clark et al., 2021; Clark & Springer, 2010; Eka & Chambers, 2019). Tourangeau et al. (2014) conducted a survey of nursing faculty and identified five factors that added to decreased job satisfaction including a lack of support from the institution, increased workloads, a negative environment, incivility and bullying and insufficient support from administrators and the dean. Although all these factors should be addressed, this study will focus on incivility. There have been a few studies that showed that incivility in the workplace leads to a decrease in job satisfaction (Kim et al., 2013; Rahim & Cosby, 2016; Welbourne et al., 2016) and an increase in intent to leave (Cortina et al., 2001; Rahim & Cosby, 2016; Tricahyadinata et al., 2020). There is little research concerning faculty-to-faculty incivility, job satisfaction and intent to leave in nursing education.