Studies show that nurses are leaving their professions at concerning rates. While not comparable to the historic spike during the COVID-19 pandemic, the nurses’ quitting rates remain high and risk exceeding the projected supply of future staff.
Whether you are a stakeholder in the industry or you are preparing to become a nurse, knowing why nurses are quitting their profession provides essential insights into the current state of nursing in the US. We will present the current rates of turnover in the nursing field, the causes and reasons for nurses leaving their workplace, expected effects on the industry, and methods of addressing the projected shortage and burnout crises.
Current Rate of Nurses Quitting Their Profession
The healthcare industry maintained a high 20.7% turnover rate in 2024 despite experiencing a slight 2% decrease since 2022. The rate of registered nurses quitting their jobs is 18.4% after decreasing by 4%.
The likelihood of medical staff and nurses leaving their profession depends on their level of experience:
| Years of tenure | All medical employees’ turnover | Registered nurses turnover |
| Under 1 year | 40.4% | 34% |
| 1 to 2 years | 21.8% | 23% |
| 2 to 5 years | 18.4% | 21.2% |
| 5 to 10 years | 10% | 11.9% |
| Over 10 years | 9.4% | 9.9% |
The occupied nursing role also affects the likelihood of nurses quitting, with certified nurse assistants (CNAs) having the highest turnover rates (41.8% last year, an 8.1% increase). The nurses least likely to leave their professions are nurse case managers, with a 9.5% turnover, nurse anesthetists (CRNAs), with a 9% turnover, and hospital executives, with a turnover of only 7.7%.
Historical Overview of Nursing Turnover
Although the number of nurses in the US has grown steadily over the past 100 years, the rate of increasing personnel started stagnating in the 1990s, resulting in shortages later on.
However, despite some progress being made in addressing the demand in the nursing field, the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a historic nosedive among medical staff numbers, with nearly 100,000 nurses leaving the profession in 2021 alone.
The nursing shortage remains a cause for concern for the present and foreseeable future, as the supply of nurses in the US is projected to meet only 93.43% of the demand by 2026, according to the latest report by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).
One key hurdle in addressing the growing demands in the medical industry is the concerningly high turnover rate of nurses. According to a 2023 study from the American Nurses Foundation, 39% of surveyed nurses stated their intent to change their role within six months. Additionally, 41% of direct-care nurses and 30% of non-direct-care workers indicated their intention to leave their profession. A decrease in the frontline nursing roles coupled with the aging US population could result in a vicious cycle of increasing demand and reduced workforce retention. This image is further confirmed by nurses with ten years of experience or less, indicating that inadequate staffing is the main reason for quitting nursing.
Nurses quitting their professions may be the central challenge to the industry’s continuity, and mitigating it presupposes understanding the underlying causes and reasons for increased turnover.
Why Are Nurses Quitting? 8 Main Reasons
The unprecedentedly high levels of job quitting, referred to as The Great Resignation, is shown to also affect nursing fields by the 2023 AMN Healthcare Survey of Registered Nurses.
According to the survey, the leading causes and reasons for nurses quitting their profession or retiring early are the following:
1. The Context of the Pandemic
One reason for an increased number of nurses quitting their jobs is the effect of the pandemic that endures in post-pandemic years. Around 30% of nurses report that they are likely to leave the profession due to the pandemic, representing a 7% increase since 2021 in the middle of the pandemic. Additionally, 18% of nurses say that they intend to retire from nursing due to the same reasons.
2. Dissatisfaction With the Career
Nurse career satisfaction has varied from 80% to 85% throughout the decade, dropping to 71% in 2023. Additionally, the number of nurses satisfied with the quality of care provided at their current job has decreased from 75% to 64% between 2021 and 2023.
The decrease in satisfaction affects not only the percentage of nurses quitting their jobs but also the likelihood that current professionals will encourage prospective learners to enter the field. Overall, nurses are 14% less likely to encourage others to pursue a similar career.
Younger nurses are the most affected demographic, being significantly less satisfied with their careers and less likely to encourage peers to become nurses.
3. Shortage in Experienced Leadership
Poor and difficult leadership and the related issue of excessive time spent on administrative tasks are regularly cited causes for burnout and quitting among nurses.
Additionally, poor management in a healthcare working environment will eventually lead to additional stressors for nurses quitting their professions, such as increased quotas, poor nurse-to-patient ratios, and a lack of time to address personal mental health.
4. Poor Nurse Mental Health and Wellbeing
The state of nurse mental health and well-being continues to worsen and represents an enduring cause for concern in the industry. Around 80% of nurses indicate feeling a great deal of work-related stress, representing a 16% increase from 2021. Similar increases occurred in the worry of adverse health effects due to their job (up by 19%) and in feeling emotionally drained (up by 15%).
The resulting feelings of nursing burnout often go unaddressed, with 35% of nurses never addressing their state, either due to a lack of time and resources or due to the stigma surrounding mental health issues in the field.
5. Poor Staffing and Nursing Shortages
The nursing staff shortage remains a considerable and deeply felt issue in the medical field, with nearly 9 in 10 nurses stating that the shortage had worsened over the past five years. Additionally, up to 94% of surveyed respondents perceived the shortage to be moderate or severe, with 80% expecting to experience poorer staffing in the future.
The central consequence of the shortage of nurses is overburdening and the decrease in quality of care, with only 33% of nurses saying they have ideal time to spend with patients, a reduction from 43% in 2021.
6. New Nurses Leaving the Profession Early
According to the 2024 NSI National Health Care Retention & RN Staffing Report, nurses who are new to the field or who have under one year of experience have a turnover rate of 34%, the highest based on experience. More so, the more experience nurses accrue, the lower their chances of abandoning their careers:
- 23% turnover rate for nurses with 1-2 years of experience
- 21.2% turnover rate for nurses with 2-5 years of experience
- 11.9% turnover rate for nurses with 5-10 years of experience
- 9.9% turnover rate for nurses with over 10 years of experience
Among causes that require mitigation are insufficient staffing for providing new nurses with support, a lack of relationships established within the workplace, as well as a lack of commitment and confidence in their employment.
7. Nurses Feel Undervalued at Their Workplace
One central issue among the nursing workforce is the feeling of not being valued within organizations, being also one of the top three reasons for nurses leaving their profession, along with insufficient staffing and poor compensation.
The feeling of being undervalued is also linked with feelings of burnout and increased job-related stress, which, in turn, increase the odds of exiting the field.
8. Comparatively Poor Salary Benefits
The salary of nurses has a considerable impact on their likelihood of quitting and the overall turnover rate in the workplace and the industry at large. Poor compensation is considered to be one of the main factors contributing to higher turnover, especially when considering nurse reports. More so, it has been found that a higher salary and better benefits, when coupled with improved working conditions, can reduce nurses’ quitting and turnover rates, especially in hospital settings.
Effects of Staff Quitting Nursing Professions
The concerning number of nurses leaving the profession brings additional financial stress to healthcare environments and hinders the industry’s ability to address the shortage in personnel resulting from an aging population nationwide.
Costs of Nurses Leaving the Profession
The costs of turnover considerably impact the financial stability of hospitals and healthcare units. The average cost of nurses leaving the profession in 2024 is estimated to be $56,300 per RN, having increased by 7.5% since 2022. The resulting total cost for the average hospital ranges between $3.9 million and $5.8 million. More so, each 1% change in the rate of nurses leaving the profession would cost healthcare employers $262,500 per year.
Increase in Nursing Shortage
Beyond direct costs for employers, the increased turnover and resignation rates have detrimental effects on efforts to reduce the ongoing shortage of nurses and threats to the industry’s continuity. The comparatively higher number of young and inexperienced nurses leaving the profession can mean that the nursing field may lack future leadership and experienced personnel. Additionally, as one of the leading causes of nursing shortages is the projected number of retiring staff, a gap in younger career nurses can lead to even worse trends in reduced levels of care and coverage for medical services.
Unbalanced Regional Effects
Lastly, neither shortage rates nor the frequency of nurses leaving the profession are equally distributed across the US. Some regions are affected by these trends to a greater extent than others. The South and South-East of the nation feature both the highest turnover rates (19% to 19.5%) and shortage percentages (an 8.39% staff deficit). The West has a similar co-occurrence, with a 17.6% turnover rate along with a shortage in staff of 8.22%, while the North East features high turnover (17.8%) but relatively low shortages (6.60%). The Midwest has both the lowest rate of nurses leaving the profession (16.8%) and an excess of staff (7.36% over the demand). Aside from regional differences, rural areas are the most affected by both shortages and turnover, and any effort to mitigate them should target historically underserved communities.
How to Support Nurses in Their Career?
The methods of supporting and encouraging nurses to keep pursuing their careers are as diverse and multifaceted as the causes of nurses leaving the profession.
Providing the Support Early On
The first and foremost step, both in reducing shortages and in addressing the causes of turnover, is to provide support and resources for prospective nurses already from the earliest moments of their journey. For this exact reason, the Nightingale Foundation offers a variety of scholarships and resources to empower aspiring nurses to join a learning path without additional financial stress. The Foundation’s activities prioritize non-traditional students from underrepresented and underserved communities who face the toughest challenges in becoming nurses but who can also address issues in rural and affected areas.
The Nightingale Foundation aims to bolster excellence in the field and supports the future leaders of the nursing industry. Its Community Education Outreach program offers guidance, support, and resources to prospective students from as early a moment as post-high school graduation. Nurses who receive the necessary education, guidance, and material support will have a higher commitment to the industry and can provide their support to the nursing community at large.
Discover more about the activities as well as the scholarships provided by the Nightingale Foundation.
Implementing Better Working Conditions
Nurses have been collectively advocating for better working conditions, especially in frontline roles that often experience the highest levels of stress, patient-to-nurse rations, and poorer quality of care outcomes.
Here are the most effective actions for improving the working conditions of nurses, according to the latest studies:
- Reducing the number of patients per nurse and increasing time per patient
- Increasing the support for nurses and providing mental health resources
- Creating a safer environment for healthcare workers
- Allowing more input from nurses into decisions that impact their activities
- Implementing flexible scheduling for their daily activities
- Reducing documentation burdens and physical tasks
- Implementing hybrid roles for clinical nurses
Increasing Compensation and Benefits
A better salary and additional benefits, especially those dedicated to supporting those nurses who are exposed to the highest levels of stress and risks of burnout, can mitigate the spiking turnover rates.
On average, every hired nurse can save a healthcare facility $101,338, and the financial outcome increases when hiring long-term staff. When it comes to staff retention, healthcare facilities already dedicate the majority of their strategies to keeping new hires (69.9%) than to the more tenured nurses (48.9%). With the proper compensation and an adequate support system, employers can reduce their efforts to retain the existing workforce and lower the number of nurses leaving the profession and instead shift the focus to training and recruiting new personnel.Addressing and improving nurses’ satisfaction and well-being are vital aspects of improving the industry as a whole and mitigating projected shortages. Conversely, understanding why nurses are leaving the profession and what the central issues in the workforce are can provide the premises for generating a robust, future-oriented strategy for the betterment of the nursing profession and the healthcare industry as a whole.