A new national study released Thursday revealed 100,000 nurses left the workforce due to the pandemic and another almost 700,000 are considering leaving by 2027.
The National Council of State Boards of Nursing calls it “the largest, most comprehensive study of the nursing workforce since the pandemic.”
“We could be headed towards a national health care crisis,” NCSBN’s Maryann Alexander told the News4 I-Team. “If we don't have enough nurses who are our most valuable resource in the health care industry, we will not be able to take care of all the patients that may need help.”
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According to the survey, a quarter to half of nurses reported feeling emotionally drained (50.8%), used up (56.4%), fatigued (49.7%), burned out (45.1%) or at the end of the rope (29.4%) “a few times a week” or “every day.”
For nurses it means more work in harsher conditions. For patients, it has serious effects. One nurse told researchers in the report, “There have been many times I thought I was in danger or a patient was in danger.”
It mimics what the I-Team found recently examining nursing shortages and workplace safety that patients are feeling the pinch.
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Katie Sheketoff, a cancer survivor, told the I-Team earlier this year she’d seen it first hand.
"A couple of the times that I went into the ER, I would go hours without seeing a nurse or I'd have different people come in or they'd come in and seem really distracted," she said.
The study of tens of thousands of nurses nationwide, including those in the Washington area, found nurses experiencing higher stress, burnout, increased workloads all contributing to high levels of retirements and early career departures.
The survey showed nurses with 10 or fewer years of experience are leaving the industry at a faster pace than nurses with more experience.
That, researchers say, is a particular concern for the future of care. They called for “urgent action” to reverse the trend.
At a news conference in D.C. on Thursday, Gay Landstrom, the senior vice president and chief nursing officer at Trinity Health said, “Those working nurses need a different environment which is safer, that is more flexible, that is more supported.”
Reported by Ted Oberg, produced by Rick Yarborough, and shot and edited by Jeff Piper.
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