The primary purpose of this descriptive cross-sectional survey of nurse educators, employed full-time by a NLN accredited baccalaureate and higher degree granting school of nursing with both a graduate and an undergraduate program, was to identify if the variables, psychological hardiness, faculty practice involvement, and perceived role stress, were inter-related. An additional purpose was to determine whether there were differences between those involved in faculty practice and those not involved in faculty practice.

It was predicted that: (1) the nurse educators perception of role stress would be negatively related to the level of psychological hardiness, (2) the perception of role stress by nurse educators involved in faculty practice would be greater than the perception of role stress by nurse educators not involved in faculty practice, and (3) the level of psychological hardiness of nurse educators involved in faculty practice would be greater than the level of psychological hardiness of nurse educators not involved in faculty practice.

Each of 1345 identified nurse educators, whose name had been provided by the deans of 34 randomly selected schools of nursing, was requested to anonymously respond to a mailed, self-administered, pencil and paper questionnaire comprised of three instruments (Demographic Data Questionnaire, Personal Views Survey, and Role Conflict and Role Ambiguity Scale). A 66.5% subject response rate was obtained.

Data from 871 of the respondents' questionnaires were analyzed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. The nurse educators perception of role stress was found to be significantly negatively correlated to the level of psychological hardiness. No significant difference was found between those involved in faculty practice and those not involved in faculty practice with respect to perception of role stress or to level of psychological hardiness.

The results of this study suggest that faculty practice involvement of nurse educators in NLN accredited baccalaureate and higher degree granting schools of nursing with both a graduate and an undergraduate program is a self-selective process.