We all know that 2020 demonstrated an incredible impact on the nursing profession. Nursing in healthcare is based on a highly reliable, highly repeatable process. The COVID phenomenon forced nursing to throw out long-standing playbooks for patient care and adopt new ways of caring that were not tested nor honed with years of rigor and review. This profound level of change in such a short period of time, coupled with the experience of living through a global pandemic and all its suffering and death, challenged nurses in ways that were unprecedented in the modern era. Nurses across the world faced an immense challenge to shoulder the weight of the changes to practice and had a front row seat to human suffering.
These unique factors combined to create an environment that left nurses contemplating leaving their careers, creating an even greater labor shortage than already projected. In fact, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates there will be a global shortage of 4.5 million nurses by 2030 – a statistic that could destabilize the healthcare industry. The International Council of Nurses predicts that the shortage could be even more dire, with a shortfall of more than 13 million nurses by 2030. These staggering global shortfalls have created a call-to-action in healthcare to help combat the nursing labor issues. At Health Carousel, our mission is to improve lives and make healthcare work better. This call to action is simply one we could not ignore–nor should anyone else.
Today, healthcare facilities face a dual challenge: retaining their current workforce while also attracting new providers as staffing needs shift. As with any problem to solve, Health Carousel’s initial strategy was to understand, assess the issues and then execute on solutions. These issues are complex, regionally specific to location and muddied by other confounding issues in their operational lives. To gain a greater understanding of nurses’ needs, Health Carousel conducted a study of 1,000 travel and staff nurses who worked bedside in an acute care setting currently or within the last 12 months.
The survey results showed a shift in the way nurses want to work for the long term. Large percentage of nurses (70%) said they had a “somewhat more” or “much more” negative outlook on nursing after the pandemic, with 58% saying they felt burnt out in their current careers. With today’s mentally, emotionally and physically demanding nursing roles, a vast majority of nurses are removing themselves from hospitals altogether, either temporarily by taking more time off or permanently by changing careers. Of those surveyed, two out of five nurses anticipated leaving their current role within the next five years, nearly half of which (49%) plan to retire or fully exit the workforce.
In brief, nurses want to work differently, and healthcare organizations must address nurses’ needs today in order to sustain a resilient, committed nursing workforce.
1. Flexibility
Nurses want more flexibility and freedom in their careers. While hospitals may have less demand for travel nurses since their peak in 2020, nurses themselves are seeking out temporary and shorter-term contract positions. They want the ability to create their own schedules or take time off when needed to create a true work-life balance. Healthcare facilities can enable more flexibility for nurses when they are adequately staffed, that is, when they have a lower patient-to-nurse ratio.
2. Career Advancement Opportunities
With their more flexible schedules, nurses (54% of survey respondents) want to be able to pursue additional education and career advancement opportunities. While these are lower priorities compared to burnout factors, their importance will increase as burnout decreases. It looks different for every nurse, from exploring new specialties to becoming a nurse practitioner or even pursuing another career path within healthcare. The freedom to explore those opportunities increases employee satisfaction, thereby increasing retention.
3. Appreciation and Support
Flexible schedules and career advancement opportunities mean little if nurses ultimately feel they are serving in a thankless role. While healthcare is a calling to many, positive reinforcement affirms nurses have chosen a fulfilling career path even when they experience symptoms of burnout. Leadership support also illustrates to nurses that they matter, not just as nurses, but as people. The American Nurses Association (ANA) cites nurses should ask for help if they suffer from burnout. When nurses trust their supervisors to care about them as individuals, they are more likely to seek help and reduce burnout symptoms or avoid it altogether.
Retaining nurses is one step to reducing workforce shortages. The other is to recruit new nurses to the profession. Now is the time to advocate for rewarding nursing careers to younger generations that highly value work-life balance and career advancement opportunities. Housed in National Career Development Month, Health Carousel’s inaugural Nursing Careers Week, Nov. 11-15, is just one example of a concerted effort to appeal to prospective nurses and share the impact they can make in their careers.
Nurses are critical to healthcare operations and play a key role in saving lives. That has not changed. What has changed is how they want to work. Nurses’ burnout rates are clear evidence that the current system does not set them up for success, and if healthcare leaders fail to recognize and act on nurses’ needs, the impact could ripple across the industry for years to come. Investing in nurses by providing them with flexibility and career development while supporting their needs as individuals will help strengthen the profession today to build a stronger healthcare system in the future.
Earl Dalton
Earl Dalton has over 25 years of experience in acute hospital leadership and has specialized in areas from Adult Health to Emergency and Critical Care, contributing to top hospital systems like Duke University Health. As an accomplished speaker, author and healthcare innovator, Dalton is recognized as an industry thought leader in work culture, quality improvement and customer experience.
