1 in 3 Healthcare Workers Plan to Leave Their Position, Survey Finds

A third of surveyed healthcare workers plan to leave their job in the next year, according to new data from Tebra.

Over 500 healthcare workers responded to the online survey in spring 2023.

While one in three workers planned to leave their position, 14 percent of respondents said they planned to leave the industry entirely within the next year.

As workforce shortages persist, recruiting and retaining staff is a key priority for many healthcare organizations. However, consequences stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic and other administrative burdens are creating a less-than-ideal work setting for many healthcare professionals.

Six in ten healthcare workers said they are short-staffed. Staffing shortages impact both patient access to care and medical professionals’ mental and physical health. Nearly 80 percent of workers think a healthcare crisis will occur in the next year due to understaffing and burnout, the survey found.

While the pandemic prompted older workers to retire, the remaining workers have new standards for their workplace environments. Almost three-quarters (73 percent) of healthcare workers said they feel underpaid, while 59 percent reported feeling unappreciated at work.

If respondents were in charge at their workplace, they would increase workers’ pay and benefits (73 percent), increase staffing levels to reduce workload and stress (68 percent), and offer more flexible scheduling to accommodate a work-life balance (58 percent).

The pandemic has significantly impacted workers’ emotional well-being. Over half of respondents (55 percent) said they feel anxious and 35 percent said they feel depressed multiple times a week.

Exhaustion also weighs on healthcare workers, with 35 percent of respondents saying they have seen a co-worker fall asleep during a shift.

Most workers reported that patient care (82 percent) and safety (80 percent) suffer the most when a staff member is sleep-deprived. More than one in three respondents said they have made a mistake at work due to a lack of sleep. Reported mistakes ranged from forgetting to document important patient information to administering the wrong medication or dosage.

Staffing shortages and burnout have impacted the nursing workforce in particular. A survey from AMN Healthcare found that only 61 percent of nurses planned to work for their employer in a year from now, down five percentage points from 2021.

Job satisfaction among nurses also fell in 2023, with 64 percent of nurses saying they were satisfied with their current job compared to 67 percent in 2021.

Healthcare staffing was also turbulent before the pandemic hit. A study published in Annals of Internal Medicine found that the annual physician turnover rate grew by 43 percent between 2010 and 2018, rising from 5.3 percent to 7.6 percent.