BELLEVUE, Wash. (PRWEB)
March 13, 2023

Nurse.org, the largest website and community of nurses online, has released its 2nd annual report: “The 2023 State of Nursing.” Based on survey responses from over 2,100 nurses, the report details the real issues nurses face on a daily basis, their concerns about the future of nursing, and the support they need from hospitals and administrators to do their jobs well.

Nursing has long been an admirable and trustworthy profession – ranked as the most trusted profession for an impressive 21 years in a row by Gallup – but survey findings show nurses still need help.

“On the bright side, we see nurses doing slightly better than they were in 2021,” wrote Kathleen Gaines MSN, RN, BA, CBC, and Nurse.org News and Education Editor. “But the survey revealed that nurses continue to feel burnt out, overwhelmed with continued staffing shortages, and uncertain about the future. More nurses are ‘thinking about changing jobs within the nursing profession’ and/or ‘thinking about staying in healthcare but getting away from the bedside.’ This job dissatisfaction coupled with an increase in Baby Boomer nurses retiring is alarming.”

Key findings from the 2023 State of Nursing Report include:

• Nurses still love what they do – 60% of nurses love being a nurse, but 62% are concerned about the future of nursing.
• Workplace conditions have improved – rates of burnout, mental health suffering, and lack of support have all improved slightly. Rates of workplace violence have also dropped, 45% of nurses felt unsafe at work, down from 56% last year.
• Nurses with higher levels of education report higher job satisfaction – nurses with a post-grad certificate or diploma had the highest levels of satisfaction (55%), followed by doctoral degree holders (35%), nurses with a master’s degree (34%), bachelor’s degree (28%), and nursing certificate or diploma (22%).
• More nurses are seeking to leave the bedside, and report higher job satisfaction when they do – 48% of non-bedside nurses were satisfied, but emergency, acute, long-term care, and float nurses reported only 23% satisfaction, and obstetrics nurses were the least satisfied at 15%. Most alarming, more nurses wanted to leave the bedside in 2022 vs. 2021.
• Nurses think that the nursing shortage is getting worse – 91% of nurses believe the nursing shortage is getting worse and that burnout, poor working conditions, and inadequate pay are the primary causes. Though 55% of nurses received a pay increase in the past year, 75% of nurses still feel underpaid.
• Nurses would consider joining a union – just 15% of nurses are currently in a nursing union, but 46% would consider joining one if available. Only 4.9% of respondents did not support nursing unions.

The number one reason nurses reported getting into nursing was to help people. “I’ve always wanted to help people so I wanted to enter the health sector,” said Clare, a survey respondent. “While researching, I found out that nurses were the heart of the hospital. So, I decided to become a nurse to be the patient’s helping hand.”

Though feelings have improved since last year, nurses are still disillusioned with the jobs they so love, which puts the country’s health system at risk. When asked to choose the factors that would make the biggest impact on the nursing shortage, the top responses were improved staffing ratios (71%), better pay (64%), and better working conditions (41%).

“Nurses, we need you,” said Nurse Alice Benjamin, APRN, MSN, ACNS-BC, FNP-C, Chief Nursing Officer & Correspondent for Nurse.org. “Nursing has always been the glue that holds healthcare together and, with continued strains on the profession, it’s vital that we lean on our resilience, our community, and our ingenuity to work towards change. We must not give up. Progress can, and is, being made, but we need everyone, so please hang in there and let’s fight the good fight in unity.”

To learn more about The 2023 State of Nursing, please visit https://nurse.org/articles/state-of-nursing-2023/ To download the full report, please visit: https://media.nurse.org/docs/State+of+Nursing+-+2023.pdf

About the Report

The State of Nursing survey was conducted using Google forms. We polled our own audience of nurses on our website and social media, as well as subscribers to our email newsletters. We received 2,145 responses. The survey ran from October – November of 2022. The report was then peer-reviewed by a panel of nurses from different specialties and backgrounds, including: Courtney Lamb, MSN, RN, CEN, CCRN, Critical Care Clinical Nurse; Deidra Andrews, BSN, RN, Nurse Consultant, Case Manager; Karen Fonseca, RN, CM; Sherri McNeil, BSN, RN, Med-Surg Float Nurse; John Silver, Ph.D. MSN, RN, MBAC, Fellow-Institute of Nursing Leadership, Nursing Education, Program Chair; Jonathan V. Llamas, DNP, RN-BC, PMHNP-BC, PHN, Psychiatric Mental-Health Nurse Practitioner.

About Nurse.org

Nurse.org cares about nurses at every stage of their journey. We support and empower them to better their careers, lives and profession by publishing trusted educational resources and covering relevant news for nurses by nurses. Nurse.org influences and amplifies the nursing voices and issues that matter most, and is a trusted mentor to nurses worldwide: each month, >1.5M current and future nurses visit our website and we engage millions more via our email newsletters, social channels, and award-winning podcast.

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