Leading Ethically in the Face of Nursing Faculty Shortages and Recruitment Challenges

BACKGROUND: The ongoing shortage of nursing faculty presents significant operational and ethical challenges for academic institutions. As competition for qualified educators intensifies, recruitment and retention increasingly test nursing's collective moral commitments, not because leaders lack ethical intent, but because prevailing leadership models offer limited guidance for navigating ethical boundaries. METHOD: This article employs an ethical leadership framework grounded in deontological, utilitarian, and virtue ethics to analyze decision making related to faculty recruitment and retention. Four mechanisms, moral framing, ethical climate building, role modeling, and empowerment, are applied to dilemmas such as faculty poaching and workload equity. RESULTS: Ethical leadership provides a practical model for aligning institutional strategies with professional values. Through transparent, fair, and accountable practices, it strengthens the ethical climate and supports sustainable faculty engagement. CONCLUSION: Integrating ethics into governance and organizational culture advances moral integrity and institutional effectiveness, ensuring that nursing education fulfills its social mission amid faculty shortages.