Nurse Leader Insight: Nurses Speak Out About their Profession

By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, FAAN

Nate Silver in his 2012 book The Signal and the Noise wrote about the challenges of making predictions and distinguishing what is a true signal in a noisy environment. It is therefore always interesting to review national studies on nursing and what nurses report about their profession. The noise that we hear is often in our environments from those who are the most vocal and often most dissatisfied. Sometimes, the reality of what is happening can be quite different. In early May, CareerBuilder released a new, comprehensive study on the state of the nursing profession in the United States. Approximately 900 full- and part-time nurses from across the United States participated in the survey that was conducted by Harris Interactive. There are some interesting possible SIGNALS in this study for nurse leaders to consider.

The Findings

94% of nurses responding to the survey are either very satisfied, extremely satisfied or satisfied with their profession. Only a very small percentage (6%) are dissatisfied with their choice of profession.
Hospice nurses are the most satisfied in their careers.
More than 80% of those surveyed would advise others to pursue nursing as a career.
Only 2 in 5 (40%) see themselves remaining in their current jobs for at least five years.
51% report that they spend more time on documentation today than 5 years ago and 40% report that they spend less time in patient care than 5 years ago.
67% report that informal training is what has been most helpful in keeping up with job demands.
2 in 3 report that they were mentored in their work.
Only 50% of nurses report that their current employers have formal mentoring programs for new hires – a lack of staff time and lack of management buy in were cited as reasons why organizations don’t have these programs.
57% believe that technology is helping them to do their jobs more effectively with 50% indicating that it is helping them to do it faster.
On the downside, 46% believe technology has depersonalized care.
58% believe that the recent changes with health reform have made their workplace less efficient and 47% believe it will not prove to be cost effective.

There is both good news and bad news in the findings. Once again, the data confirms that nurses are satisfied with their profession and would recommend it to others. The noise that nurses are leaving nursing is not confirmed in this research or in other recent studies. The bad news is that many nurses may not be quite as satisfied with their current employers and could be open to other career opportunities. Time on documentation does seem to have increased versus decreased even with the widespread implementation of electronic health records. A fairly high number of nurses (40%) are reporting less time spent with patients. The good news about technology is that nurses seem to be adapting to it and seeing the benefits in helping them do their jobs more effectively and in some cases, faster. Sadly slightly less than half believe it has depersonalized care.

Among the most interesting findings in this study were nurse’s responses to the impact of the Affordable Care Act and Health Reform on their environments. More than half report that they are not seeing positive effects in the health care system and slightly less than half believe that it will not prove to be cost effective. This is the first study where I have seen this question asked and the responses are coming from the professionals at the front line of care who are observing what is happening. Without a doubt, there are some very interesting signals here — perhaps to early to draw any firm conclusions but definitely worth paying attention to.

Read to Lead

Career Builders (May 2014). A New Look at Loyalty, Satisfaction and Retention in the Nursing Profession Slideshare Site