A new report finds that less than half of the nurses in the US are fully engaged on the job — something that could have implications on care at long-term care communities. That’s where 14.7% of nurses say they’re not engaged with their work.
The 2023 National Nursing Engagement Report incorporated responses from 1,923 registered nurses at 37 hospitals across the country. The nurses answered questions on topics including care quality, teamwork, leadership access, professional development and more.
Engaged nurses are those defined as being “emotionally and intellectually connected to their hospitals” and committed to the success of the organization, according to PRC, the company that conducted the survey. Engaged nurses don’t miss work as much as those who aren’t engaged. Nurses engaged in their work also mentor their colleagues more compared with those who aren’t engaged.
More night shift nurses tended to be more unengaged than nurses who worked during the day. In fact, 18.4% of nurses working at night were unengaged compared with 12.8% who worked days.
Emergency departments at hospitals had the highest rate of unengaged nurses, as 18% of nurses there were unengaged. Inpatient settings had 14.7% of nurses who were unengaged — this includes long-term care communities. And 14.3% of nurses in other settings were unengaged, according to the survey.
The survey found that 82% of nurses plan to remain at their current workplace for the next two years, and the majority of those who were fully engaged don’t have plans to leave.
As for unengaged nurses, 50% said they’ll stay put for the next two years. But 41% said they felt burned out. Overall, 15.6% of the nurses surveyed had experienced burnout.
There wasn’t a big difference in the level of engagement between nurses with associate degrees and those with bachelor’s degrees, the report found.
Employment for registered nurses is expected to grow by 9% through 2030, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics expects.
