They're no longer happy being nurses. Among more than 9,000 nurses surveyed in October 2021, only 40% said they were satisfied being a registered nurse, compared to 62% in a previous survey in 2018. The most recent study is the fifth national survey the AACN has undertaken since 2006.
Nurses are one of the least happy careers in the United States. At CareerExplorer, we conduct an ongoing survey with millions of people and ask them how satisfied they are with their careers. As it turns out, nurses rate their career happiness 2.7 out of 5 stars which puts them in the bottom 13% of careers.
At least 25% of nurses have been experiencing burnout symptoms. This includes things like stress, anxiety, depression, and other forms of emotional exhaustion. Additionally, many of these nurses also face depersonalization and a diminished sense of professional achievement. 85% of nurses experience career fatigue.
Burnout affects approximately 38% of nurses per year.
It impacts nurses' personal lives, the patients they take care of, and the organizations they work for. In fact, the World Health Organization has recently labeled burnout as an official medical diagnosis.
Nursing is a stressful career, and many nurses report burnout. Some nursing roles are lower stress, including administrative and educational roles.
Critical care nurses tend to suffer the highest rates of burnout. Critical care specialties include the emergency department (ED) and intensive care unit (ICU). Emergency department nurses tend to experience the highest rates of burnout.
Some of the most common reasons for nurse burnout include long work hours, sleep deprivation, a high-stress work environment, lack of support, and emotional strain from patient care.
There are many causes of nurse burnout. Some causes are inherent to the job: providing compassionate care, working long hours, changing shift schedules, and being on your feet for hours at a time can all place serious demands on nurses.
According to one study, about half of all nurses now say they experience moderate to high-stress levels, with over 60 percent reporting emotional exhaustion. High-stress levels can affect a nurse's health and well-being, even deplete their energy and impede their critical thinking.
According to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Interdisciplinary Nursing Quality Research Initiative, 18% of nurses exhibit symptoms of depression — double the rate within the general population.
In the United States, the number one cause of stress among nurses is teamwork — pressures associated with working together as a group, such as poor communication, conflict, and tension. This was followed by stressors linked to job circumstances, like employer demands and work satisfaction.
Nursing is known as a stressful job since it is associated with complex job demands and needs, and high expectations, excessive responsibility, and minimal authority have been identified as the main stressors [6].
Nurses tend to be predominantly investigative individuals, which means that they are quite inquisitive and curious people that often like to spend time alone with their thoughts. They also tend to be social, meaning that they thrive in situations where they can interact with, persuade, or help people.
In Denmark, nurses report extremely high levels of job satisfaction and are happy with their roles. EU nationals do not need a visa to work in Denmark but nurses from the U.S. will need to apply for the right to work in the country.
Norway, a Scandinavian country known as the land of Fjords, has one of the highest standards of living in the world as well as job satisfaction for nurses.
A nurse experiencing burnout might have mental fatigue and feel emotionally drained. They may feel more negative or cynical towards their work and dread the next shift. They feel that they are starting to lose the passion and drive for the career that they once loved.
As behavioral health nurses face these compounding factors, they start feeling disengaged and detached. These are the first warning signs of burnout. If this situation is not addressed with good self-care, they risk cynicism, hopelessness, and even anxiety and depression themselves.
What is compassion fatigue? Compassion fatigue Opens in a new window is the cost of caring for others or for their emotional pain, resulting from the desire to help relieve the suffering of others. It is also known as vicarious or secondary trauma, referencing the way that other people's trauma can become their own.
The biggest risk in mental health nursing is a lack of education and training that could lead to errors in judgment and care. A nurse can make a mistake with treatment or medication, which could cause harm to the patient.
Female registered nurses are most likely to marry male managers or female registered nurses. Male registered nurses are most likely to marry female or male registered nurses. Nurse practitioners and midwives are most likely to marry miscellaneous managers, physicians and surgeons.
Institutional Nurses
These nurses administer more basic care and typically don't have to work long hours and overnight shifts, so this field of nursing tends to be low-stress. Even with less excitement, these nurses find fulfillment in providing basic and family care to those in need.