Penn LDI CICADA Initiative Names Researchers for 2025-2026 Cohort
Eighth Year of Program That Recruits, Mentors and Develops Junior Faculty for Health Services Research
In Their Own Words
What Nurses Really Need is Better Staffing
The Common Strategies to Raise Nurse Morale Need an Update
Print:
The following excerpt is from an op-ed that first appeared in STAT News on May 10th, 2024.
Pizza. Coloring books. Goody bags. They could be activities at a 5-year-old’s birthday party. But they’re not: These are many employers’ attempts to lift the morale of nurses on the frontlines of chronically understaffed organizations. What nurses really want are better working conditions so they can deliver the best care possible to their patients.
As researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, we asked thousands of nurses why they are leaving their profession. Their answers are straightforward — short staffing is so rampant that the public’s health care is at risk.
The playbook of corporate health care asks nurses to do much with little, but nurses aren’t willing to skimp on quality and safety. There isn’t a nursing shortage — it’s nurses’ refusal to be part of a system that puts profits before safety.
In our study, which was published in JAMA Network Open, nurses from hospitals, primary care, nursing homes, and hospice told us they left their jobs because of burnout, insufficient staffing, and poor work-life balance. Close to half of all retired nurses had an unplanned retirement, suggesting many were leaving their careers early.
Read the entire op-ed here.
Authors
Karen Lasater, PhD, RN
Associate Professor, Biobehavioral Health Sciences, Penn Nursing
Jane Muir, PhD, APRN
Postdoctoral Fellow, National Clinician Scholars Program and Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research, Penn Nursing
More from LDI
Exclusion of Abortion and Abortion Counseling from the VA Medical Benefits Package
Comment: Submitted to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
Impact of Proposed Changes to the Application of the Fair Labor Standards Act to Domestic Service on the Home Care Workforce
Comment: Delivered to the U.S. Department of Labor
Fragmented Geographic Distribution of Providers Suggests Limited Access to Basic Health Care for Dual Medicaid-Medicare Beneficiaries
Less Than 1% of Clinical Practices Provide 80% of Outpatient Services for Dually Eligible Individuals
U.S. Children Are Suffering: A Generation Grows Up Sicker, Sadder, and Dying Sooner
From Anxiety and Loneliness to Obesity and Gun Deaths, a Sweeping New Study Uncovers a Devastating Decline in the Health and Well-Being of U.S. Children
Older Black Adults With Abdominal Pain Are Less Likely to Get Emergency Department Imaging
Chart of the Day: National Study Shows White Patients More Likely Than Black Patients to Get CT and/or Ultrasounds for Abdominal Pain in the Emergency Department