Why Are Nurses Leaving the Profession?

Nurses are an integral part of the medical community. Without them, doctors and patients both suffer. However, nurses have been leaving the profession in droves. 

According to surveys done in 2022, about half of current practicing nurses were considering leaving the profession. Months later, this sentiment hasn’t changed. According to a USA Today article written this month, around 3 in 10 nurses were considering leaving nursing, and by 2027, around 600,000 nurses are planning on leaving or retiring. Why?

The Issues with Nursing

Nursing in and of itself is a noble profession. For hundreds of years, nurses have been at the front of everything, taking care of the sick, the elderly, and the injured. As the years went on and medicine became more advanced, so did the demands of nurses. However, as the demands increased, nothing else did. Nurse pay has only recently increased due to inflation and merit, but is still is not enough for nurses to survive. Pay is the least of their issues, though.

Lack of Staffing Hurts

The biggest issue nurses face is the lack of available nurses on staff in a given healthcare setting. Less nurses are being accepted into nursing school, meaning that the amount of new nurses being trained is declining as the years move on. It also doesn’t help that many new nurses also drop out of nursing within their first two years.

With more nurses being asked to take on bigger caseloads, quality of care for patients also decreases, something that weighs heavily on many nurses’ minds. A survey done by AMN Healthcare found that on average, only 63% of nurses say that they’re happy with the quality of care they give their patients; however, that is down from the 75% reported in 2021. (This also changes by generation; Millennials and Gen-Z nurses feel that their quality of care is much lower than their Gen X and Boomer counterparts.)

What about COVID?

Arguably, the largest reason that this nurse exodus began was because of the COVID-19 Pandemic. COVID took a toll on everyone in the medical profession, and nurses were no exception. Many nurses were overwhelmed by the amount of patients that came through, and as cases piled up, so did nurses’ stress levels and anxieties. Now, post-COVID, many nurses are still feeling the effects and don’t want to anymore.

Mental health wellness took a dive for nurses and it has not alleviated. In 2021, 38% of nurses mentioned having a large level of stress at work. In 2023, that number has shot up to 56%. Many nurses feel emotionally drained and burnt out, sentiments that are echoing through many professional fields, including the medical field. The AHM Healthcare study also reported that nurses’ feelings about not being appreciated and wanting to quit both rose from 2021 to 2023 (51% to 70% and 38% to 58%, respectively).

What Can Be Done?

Unfortunately, the easiest solutions for these problems are also the hardest. It is hard to predict when more nurses will be willing and available to work in healthcare settings and lessen the burden of nurses already in these places. Pay increases, while happening, are minimal and may not be enough for the amount of work nurses face.

However, there are some things happening that could help this crisis. In the federal budget, there is a large investment allocated for nurse education so that schools can take on more students and train them to become nurses, among other provisions. Some hospitals have implemented a system where daily scheduling becomes more flexible for nurses, using “specialized staffing coordination offices” to place trained nursing professionals where they are needed most, helping with hospital staffing issues. 

Many nurses predict that this will get worse before it becomes better, and they may be right. However, with enough training and resources, nurses may find themselves happy with their profession again and less likely to leave.