Intent to Leave Nursing - A New Phenomenon?

By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, NEA-BC, FAAN

What have you changed your mind about relative to the nursing workforce? This is a question that I often ask leaders and reflect on myself.

For most of the four decades that I have worked in nursing, I have rarely seen nurses leave the profession. Their jobs – yes, but not the profession. That observation has been backed up with workforce data. Historically, nurses have had one of the highest professional participation rates – 80+% of nurses continue to work in the profession.

The first time I heard that this might be changing was when I interviewed Larissa Africa (the President of Versant) for the February issue of Nurse Leader. Larissa reported seeing new data trends among some new graduates about intent to leave the profession.

We have no workforce data to verify this new phenomenon, but nurse leaders now report that some staff is leaving their jobs and the profession. Some recent stories told to me include the following:

A nurse with 10 years of experience in the emergency department quits with the intent to work full-time in real estate.
A CRNA with less than 7 years of nursing experience reports on a podcast that he has achieved financial independence and is quitting the profession.
A young nurse quits mid-shift on a COVID unit, telling her manager that being a barista at Starbucks was more satisfying, and she plans to go back to her pre-nursing work.
A young “former nurse” is featured as an online fashion start-up owner in Entrepreneur magazine.
A critical care nurse with two years of experience sits next to a technology executive on a flight home to see her parents. He interviews her for a position totally unrelated to health care – hires her. He is “thrilled with her work” as she is smart, has good communication skills, and is technologically savvy. She recruits two of her co-workers to work for the firm. Her former ICU lost three nurses who had been with them since graduation.

Some of the nurses quitting the profession are likely burned out and possibly even have PTSD. They may want to avoid re-traumatization. But some of these nurses are making new and different choices. We are seeing our new generations of nurses in the workforce making different decisions about their next steps. There is a massive labor shortage in the United States, and nurses today are well educated with skill sets that are in high demand. The war for talent is a real one, and your newest competitors are not in healthcare.

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