Survey: Mental health, job satisfaction of registered nurses has plummeted
DALLAS (CBSNewsTexas.com) – A new survey shows that the mental health and job satisfaction of registered nurses has plummeted - even since the heart of the pandemic. There were 18,000 nurses asked about the state of the industry and whether they intended to remain in it.
They are among the frontline workers of healthcare, but the state-of-mind of registered nurses, according to the survey, is in a state of crisis.
"And the nurses, I feel like they they've been resilient for so long, and it's just it's very hard for them to maintain that resiliency," said Mary Vitullo, director-at-large, Texas Nurses Association Board of Directors
Dallas-based AMN Healthcare reported that only 15% of the hospital nurses surveyed plan to keep working in their current position in the next year.
"That's frightening. That means 85% of those hospital nurses are contemplating a move elsewhere," said Christin Stanford, VP of Client Solutions for AMN Healthcare. "And that is terribly distressing when you realize that we are already in a shortage of enough nurses."
The survey has been conducted every other year since 2009. But this January, it revealed a sudden decline in nurses' views toward the industry since the last survey in 2021 - the middle of the pandemic.
The data show that career satisfaction among nurses dropped 10 percentage points since then.
"What happened during the pandemic of a lot of the stress they went through, and they were healthcare heroes. And now the pendulum has kind of swung the other way," said Stephen Love, president and CEO of DFW Hospital Council.
They all said the solutions include more support and flexibility on the part of employers.
"We're seeing a lot of the support services come back into the hospital, which is very positive," said Vitullo.
And they're hopeful that, with that, they'll see retention - and better survey numbers next time.
"Every CEO that I've talked to in the last six months, workforce is their number one priority," said Love. "At least we're focused on it and moving in the right direction."
