Nursing Homes Have 94% Staff Turnover Rate — With Even Higher Churn at Low-Rated Facilities

Even before COVID-19, the median staff turnover at U.S. nursing homes was nearly 100%, with even less continuity at facilities with lower federal star ratings, a new study has determined.

Workers turned over at a median rate of 94% and a mean rate of 128% in 2017 and 2018, according to an analysis published this week in the journal Health Affairs. The mean rates were greater than 100% across all three primary employee types studied — registered nurses (140.7%), certified nursing assistants (129.1%), and licensed practical nurses (114.1%).

…the analysis represents the first comprehensive look at turnover based on payroll-based journal (PBJ) data; while earlier attempts to quantify churn at nursing homes relied on small samples, the study drew from federal data collected from more than 15,000 facilities across the country, totaling 492 million shifts worked by 4.4 million staffers.