Top Five Takeaways From Recent Nursing Workforce Research

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

Over the past three weeks, two surveys have been released offering insight into the nursing workforce and nurse leaders. The 2025 NSI National Health Care Retention & RN Staffing Report provided an overview of what happened with the nursing and healthcare workforce in acute care settings during 2024.  The recently released AONL-Joslin Nursing Leadership Insight Study is longitudinal (one of six conducted since 2020) and looks at changes in leaders’ perceptions over time.

As I reviewed these two studies, the following are my top five takeaways:

1. Recruitment and retention are still cited as the top leadership challenge, but things have improved. Through many measures that health systems have taken, from flexible scheduling to virtual nursing, RN turnover has dropped to 16.4% yearly. RN turnover is highest in behavioral health at 22.8% per year, which is not surprising with the level of escalating patient and family violence and incivility now reported by staff. Hospital vacancy rates are only moderately lower at 9.6%. While RN turnover rates overall have improved, turnover in the first two years of practice remains high at 56.9%.
2. Staffing remains a top concern. While the workforce itself has stabilized, patient volumes and acuity have increased. Nurse leaders still struggle to staff their units, and capacity issues are a key concern.
3. Patient and family incivility and violence are a growing threat to the psychological safety of staff.  Physical violence toward staff is on the increase in healthcare settings, with 42% of leaders reporting that they witnessed acts of violence. Staff-on-staff incivility is also increasing as staff struggle to manage relationships.
4. Leaders spend more time today helping staff navigate their conflicts with one another. 71% of leaders now report that conflict resolution is among their top five most consuming activities. This is a 4% increase from last year and indicates that conflict in the workplace has grown.
5. Redesigning care delivery remains a key priority, but there are challenges in successfully doing it. Nurse leaders highlighted the growing importance of proficiency with technology and artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance workflows, address administrative burdens, and improve patient care, but progress is slow. Ideally, organizations could pilot team-based models incorporating fewer professional staff, but workforce data indicates that yearly turnover is highest among PCT (34.2%) and CNA (36.1%) staff.

Some key factors looming on the horizon include the financial headwinds impacting Medicare and Medicaid that many health systems expect to experience in the current political environment. The aging nursing workforce is also a key concern. According to the NCHWA Nursing Workforce dashboard, approximately thirty-four (34%) of RNs are Baby Boomers, all of whom will reach retirement age by 2030. It is unclear how some trends seen today with the Generation Z workforce, such as working fewer hours and switching employers more frequently, will affect future workforce availability.