April 15, 2022 – About 100,000 registered nurses have left the career over the past two years because of stress, burnout and retirement throughout the COVID pandemic, a study finds. new report from the National Council of State Boards of Nursing.
Another 610,388 nurses with a median age of 57 said they intend to depart the nursing career by 2027 for a similar reasons, and 188,962 nurses under age 40 said that they had “similar intentions,” in accordance with the NCSBN.
Overall, about one-fifth of all nurses within the United States are expected to depart the nursing field, which may lead to a possible nursing shortage.
“The data is clear: The future of nursing and the U.S. healthcare ecosystem is at an urgent crossroads,” said Maryann Alexander, NCSBN chief officer of nursing regulation, in a press release. “The pandemic has pushed nurses to leave the profession and has accelerated the intention to leave in the near future, which will become a larger crisis and threaten the patient population if solutions are not implemented immediately.”
“Today presents an urgent opportunity for health systems, policymakers, regulators and leading scientists to come together and enact solutions that will drive positive systemic evolution to address these challenges and maximize patient protections in care in the future.”
According to the report, the pandemic has caused extreme stress for nurses, with 62 percent of respondents reporting a rise of their workload, and 1 / 4 to half of them feeling emotionally drained, used up, exhausted, burned out or at the tip of their rope not less than several times every week.
The American Nursing Association According to the organization, there are 4.3 million registered nurses within the United States, and a shortage already existed before the pandemic accelerated that trend.
Citing projections from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the ANA said a median of 194,500 job openings for registered nurses might be created between 2020 and 2030, with employment growth expected to be 9%.