These finding have direct relevance to SNF nurse retention and minimum staffing compliance. Operators seeking to improve Five Star ratings and reduce costly turnover should prioritize evidence-based investments in safe staffing ratios, flexible scheduling, and improved work environments to retain experienced RNs already in the workforce.
Top Factors in Nurses Ending Health Care Employment Between 2018 and 2021
“Although planned retirement was the leading factor (3047 [39%]), nurses also cited burnout or emotional exhaustion (2039 [26%]), insufficient staffing (1687 [21%]), and family obligations (1456 [18%]) as other top contributing factors. Among retired nurses, 2022 (41%) ended health care employment for reasons other than planned retirement, including burnout or emotional exhaustion (1099 [22%]) and insufficient staffing (888 [18%]).”
Muir, K. Jane, et al. “Top Factors in Nurses Ending Health Care Employment Between 2018 and 2021.” JAMA Network Open, vol. 7, no. 4, 9 Apr. 2024, doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.4121.
What Nurses Really Want: Sufficient Staffing for Patient Care
As researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, we asked thousands of nurses why they are leaving their profession. Their answers are straightforward — short staffing is so rampant that the public’s health care is at risk.
“In our study, which was published in JAMA Network Open, nurses from hospitals, primary care, nursing homes, and hospice told us they left their jobs because of burnout, insufficient staffing, and poor work-life balance. Close to half of all retired nurses had an unplanned retirement, suggesting many were leaving their careers early. Insufficient nurse staffing has contributed to a persistent cycle of burnout driving turnover and vacancies.”
— STAT News, May 10, 2024
Working conditions, not personal reasons, causing nurses to leave long-term care: study
“Nurses are not principally leaving for personal reasons, like going back to school or because they lack resilience. They are working in chronically poorly staffed conditions,” said senior author Karen B. Lasater, PhD, RN, an associate professor of nursing and senior fellow of the Leonard Davis Institute for Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania.
— McKnight’s Long-Term Care News, April 10, 2024
Burnout, Staffing Shortages Driving Nurses from Healthcare
“Nurses are retiring early and leaving employment in the health care sector because of longstanding failures of their employers to improve working conditions that are bad for nurses and unsafe for patients. Until hospitals meaningfully improve the issues driving nurses to leave, everyone loses.”
“Nurses are not principally leaving for personal reasons, like going back to school or lacking resilience. They are working in chronically poorly staffed conditions, which is an ongoing problem that predates the pandemic,” says senior study author Karen Lasater,
— Urban Health Today, May 7, 2024
Poor Working Conditions Are a Top Reason Nurses Leave Healthcare, Study Finds
“Nurses are not principally leaving for personal reasons, like going back to school or because they lack resilience. They are working in chronically poorly staffed conditions which is an ongoing problem that predates the pandemic.”
To combat the exodus from the field, employers need to provide solutions to improve working conditions including work-life balance. That may look like shorter shifts, higher pay for weekend and holiday work, and on-site childcare.
— McKnight’s Long-Term Care News, April 10, 2024
Here’s Why Nurses Are Exiting Healthcare
“Nurse staffing is a modifiable feature … it’s something that hospitals can choose to invest in, and they must invest in it, if they want to have better outcomes for patients and reduce some of the high turnover and departures that they’re seeing in their institutions.”
— MedPage Today, April 9, 2024
Nurses Cite Employer Failures as Their Top Reason for Leaving
“Prior studies evaluate nurses’ intentions to leave their job. Our study is one of the few evaluating why nurses actually left healthcare employment entirely. Closely behind retirements, insufficient staffing, burnout, and poor work-life balance topped the list. Among retired nurses in the study, only 59% stated their retirement was planned, suggesting nearly half of nurse retirements are premature exits due to poor working conditions.”
— Penn Nursing News, April 9, 2024
