The nursing shortage in the U.S. appears to be worsening with a shortage of over 78,000 registered nurses projected for 2025. New data, compiled by Carta Healthcare, reveals that 40 percent of U.S. nurses would switch professions if given the choice.
According to the survey, healthcare workers reveal the leading triggers are:
- Low pay and long hours (53.8%)
- Short-staffed facilities (45.4%)
- Lack of leadership (31.5%)
- Personnel issues (31.3%)
Additional data reveals that more than three-quarters (76.9 percent) think that artificial intelligence could help combat labour shortages and improve the pain points they are experiencing in data analytics, entry, and management for clinical documentation (73.9 percent).
The survey was conducted in February 2024 where 500 U.S. healthcare workers were polled. This discovered found that the biggest threats to the healthcare industry, according to the healthcare workers, are high care costs (74.3 percent), the nurse shortage (63.1 percent), and the lack of personnel to care for the aging population (58.6 percent).
One of the potential triggers for healthcare workers leaving the profession is burnout. This is not a medical condition, but rather a state of physical and emotional exhaustion caused by excessive, prolonged, and untreated interpersonal workplace stress.
When polling healthcare workers, over half (58 percent) say that being short staffed is the biggest factor for burnout, followed by low pay and long hours (46.6 percent). Healthcare professionals also cite the following reasons for burnout:
- Quality of care has declined (27.9%)
- Personnel issues (27.5%)
- Quality of necessary supplies and equipment (26.3%)
- Lack of leadership (23.9%)
- Admin/paperwork (22.3%)
- Politics/ bureaucracy and red tape (20.9%)
Over a quarter (29.3 percent) say that their workload feels just as heavy as it was during the pandemic, while 23.3 percent say it is even heavier.
Another warning sign in terms of employment stability is captured within the finding where knowing what they know now, a third (37.1 percent) of healthcare workers say they would choose another career path.
To counteract this, healthcare workers have identified several factors that could increase their job satisfaction, including higher pay (65.3 percent), more staffing to limit the burden (48.2 percent), the ability to have more time for direct patient care (32.1 percent), and technological advancements to help them do their jobs (29.1 percent).
