Given a chance to go back in time to advise their former selves, only about half (52%) of the nation’s currently employed nurses say they would choose the field again, according to a survey by Boca Raton-based health care staffing firm Cross Country Healthcare and Florida Atlantic University’s Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing.
The remainder (48%) said they either wouldn’t choose to be nurses or don’t know whether they would choose the profession.
Two-thirds of nurses liked that they did meaningful work, but 86% were dissatisfied with the pay, 53% with staff shortages, 39% with stress and 35% with burnout, the survey showed.
The survey revealed that 23% of nurses plan to look for new careers in the next one to two years, and 13% plan to retire. "The results of our survey of nearly 2,000 employed and student nurses point to ongoing challenges that the profession faces, providing us with a roadmap to address their concerns with innovative strategies that meet the needs of the nurse and the health care system," says FAU nursing college dean and professor Safiya George.