Medicare’s Hidden Fix for High Drug Costs
Medicare’s Payment Plan Can Ease Seniors’ Crushing Drug Costs but Medicare Buries it in the Fine Print
Blog Post
Top 5 Reasons Why U.S. Nurses Are Leaving Their Jobs
Study Suggests Hospitals Could Improve Working Conditions to Retain Nursing Staff
Print:
The seismic departures in the nursing workforce threaten to impair access and quality of care across the country. And these trends concerned health care leaders and policymakers even before the major disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Today, hospitals continue struggling to fill openings even though the U.S. has never had more actively-licensed nurses (5.6 million), driven by record-breaking graduations from schools and a robust job forecast.
To understand what is driving the exodus, Penn LDI researchers surveyed more than 7,800 nurses who left employment between 2018 and 2021, and published their findings in a recent study in JAMA Network Open.
Here are the top five reasons why nurses left their jobs:
- Planned retirement. Of those surveyed, 30% left employment for a retirement they had planned.
- Burnout. About 1 in 4 respondents reported that they left because of burnout.
- Insufficient staffing. Related to experiencing burnout, 21% of those surveyed identified a lack of sufficient staffing as the cause of their departure.
- Poor work-life balance. The inability to balance restrictive and often unpredictable work schedules with family life led about 18% of respondents to depart from their jobs.
- Concerns related to COVID-19. Of those surveyed, 17% said concerns about COVID-19, including concern about family member exposure, led to their departure.
The researchers point out that all of these reasons (aside from planned retirement) are factors within the control of the institutions. They argue that substantive improvements to work conditions could ease the nursing retention crisis.
The study, “Top Factors in Nurses Ending Health Care Employment Between 2018 and 2021,” was published on April 9, 2024 in JAMA Network Open. Authors include K. Jane Muir, Joshua Porat-Dahlerbruch, Jacqueline Nikpour, Kathryn Leep-Lazar, and Karen B. Lasater.
Author
Julia Hinckley, JD
Director of Policy Strategy
More on Health Care Access & Coverage
Patients Face New Barriers for GLP-1 Drugs Like Wegovy and Ozempic
Even With Lower Prices, Medicare, Medicaid, and Other Insurers Tighten Coverage for Drugs Like Mounjaro and Zepbound Using Prior Authorization and Other Tools
How One Study Helped Save Free Preventive Care in a Supreme Court Showdown
A 2024 Study Showing How Even Small Copays Reduce PrEP Use Fueled Media, Legal, and Advocacy Efforts As Courts Weighed a Case Threatening No-Cost Preventive Care for Millions
Insurers’ Utilization Management Tools Vary Widely on Anti-Nausea Drugs for Cancer
Chart of the Day: LDI Researchers Report Major Coverage Differences Across ACA and Medicaid Plans, Affecting Access to Drugs That Treat Chemo-Related Nausea
Why You May Have Fewer Health Insurance Choices Than Your Neighbor
Insurers Avoid Counties With Small Populations and Poor Health but a New LDI Study Finds Limited Evidence of Anticompetitive Behavior
Acupuncture Could Fix America’s Chronic Pain Crisis–So Why Can’t Patients Get It?
A Proven, Low-Risk Treatment Is Backed by Major Studies and Patient Demand, Yet Medicare and Insurers Still Make It Hard To Use