April 15, 2022 -- About 100,000 registered nurses left the workforce during the COVID pandemic in the last two years because of stress, burnout, and retirements, according to a new report by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing.
Another 610,388 RNs with an average age of 57 said they intend to quit nursing by 2027 for the same reasons, and 188,962 RNs younger than 40 said they had “similar intentions,” the NCSBN said.
Altogether, about a fifth of RNs in the United States are projected to leave the health care workforce, forecasting a potential nursing shortage.
“The data is clear: the future of nursing and of the U.S. health care ecosystem is at an urgent crossroads,” Maryann Alexander, NCSBN Chief Officer of Nursing Regulation, said in a news release. “The pandemic has stressed nurses to leave the workforce and has expedited an intent to leave in the near future, which will become a greater crisis and threaten patient populations if solutions are not enacted immediately.
“There is an urgent opportunity today for health care systems, policymakers, regulators and academic leaders to coalesce and enact solutions that will spur positive systemic evolution to address these challenges and maximize patient protection in care into the future.”
The report said the pandemic put extreme stress on nurses, with 62% of respondents reporting an increase in their workload, and a quarter to half of them feeling emotionally drained, used up, fatigued, burned out, or at the end of their rope at least a few times a week.
The American Nurses Association says 4.3 million registered nurses work in the United States and that a shortage was occurring even before the pandemic accelerated the trend.
Citing US Bureau of Labor Statistics projections, the ANA said 194,500 average annual openings for registered nurses will occur between 2020 and 2030, with employment projected to grow 9%.
