New data from the National Council of State Boards of Nursing revealed this week that 100,000 nurses left the field during the COVID-19 pandemic. By 2027 900,000 are expected to leave the workforce.
That’s equal to around one fifth of the 4.5 million registered nurses in the country, according to the council, a non-profit organization. Their departure threatens the national healthcare system, it said.
“The study is considered to be the most comprehensive and only research in existence, uncovering the alarming data points which have far reaching implications for the health care system at large and for patient populations,” said the data report. “The research was gathered as part of a biennial nursing workforce study conducted by NCSBN and the National Forum of State Nursing Workforce Centers.”
As the study title suggests, “Examining the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Burnout & Stress Among U.S. Nurses,” found that the 100,000 nurses who left the field did so due to stress and burnout in addition to retirements.
“Another 610,388 RNs reported an “intent to leave” the workforce by 2027 due to stress, burnout and retirement,” and another 188,962 “RNs younger than 40 years old reported similar intentions.
According to a study published last summer, “the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in unprecedented exposure to Potentially Morally Injurious Events (PMIEs) for nurses, in which they were both moral transgressors and moral victims, with deleterious consequences on their psycho-social health and functioning.”
As millions of patients contracted COVID-19, 62% of nurses reported that their workloads got heavier. In addition to treating COVID-19, hospital staff would also test and vaccinate for the virus. More than 50% of nurses reported feeling drained (50.8%) and used up (56.4%), while nearly half said they felt fatigued (49.7%) a few times a week or every day. Nearly 30% said they felt at the end of their rope at least weekly.
“These issues were most pronounced with nurses with 10 or fewer years of experience, driving an overall 3.3% decline in the U.S. nursing workforce in the past two years,” said the report. Additionally, there was a significant decline in licensed practical/vocational nurses, many who work in long-term care settings caring for vulnerable populations. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, numbers of those nurses have dropped by 33,811 and the council said the trend continues.
NCSBN said that there needs to be work done to foster a more resilient workforce going forward.
“The data is clear: the future of nursing and of the U.S. health care ecosystem is at an urgent crossroads,” said NCSBN Chief Officer of Nursing Regulation Maryann Alexander. “The pandemic has stressed nurses to leave the workforce and has expedited an intent to leave in the near future, which will become a greater crisis and threaten patient populations if solutions are not enacted immediately. There is an urgent opportunity today for health care systems, policymakers, regulators and academic leaders to coalesce and enact solutions that will spur positive systemic evolution to address these challenges and maximize patient protection in care into the future.”
Follow KNX News 97.1 FM
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | TikTok
Related
Related
