15+ Nursing Burnout Statistics [2023]: The Shocking Truth About Nursing - Zippia (2024)

Research Summary: Whether you’re currently in the field or studying to become one, nursing can be a very demanding and strenuous line of work. After all, nurses often work long hours and play a crucial role in caring for patients.

That, combined with the COVID-19 pandemic and the understaffing issues that have followed, has made burnout a real concern for nurses all over the US.

Luckily, we’ve investigated all of the essential facts about nursing burnout. According to our extensive research:

• 95% of nurses have reported feeling burnt out within the past three years.

• Only 15.6% of nurses felt burnt out, in 2019, but since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, that number has risen to 62%.

• Up to 30% of all US nurses quit their jobs in 2021.

• 27% of nurses who quit have cited burnout as their main reason for doing so.

• The current annual turnover rate for nurses is 27.1%.

For further analysis, we broke down the data in the following ways:
Contributes | Medical Field

General Nursing Burnout Statistics

To understand just how prevalent of an issue nurse burnout truly is, we’ve gathered some general and interesting facts. According to our research:

• 2.7 million US nurses report feeling burnt out.

  Not only is that a large share of all nurses in the US, but it also means burnt-out nurses account for roughly 15% of all healthcare professionals working in the US.

• At least 25% of nurses have been experiencing burnout symptoms.

  This includes things like stress, anxiety, depression, and other forms of emotional exhaustion. Additionally, many of these nurses also face depersonalization and a diminished sense of professional achievement.

• 85% of nurses experience career fatigue.

  The most damaging of which is compassion fatigue (40%), where nurses struggle to empathize with patients. This often causes them to reconsider their career choice.

• The #1 reason nurses quit is feeling overworked.

  27% of nurses say they quit their job because they felt overworked. This is followed by not enjoying their job anymore (16%) and spending too much time on paperwork (15%).

  

• 34% of nurses plan to leave their roles by the end of 2022.

  And 44% of these nurses say that burnout is their main reason for seeking out new employment.

  See Also

  Nurses reveal the 11 hardest parts of their job, from the death of patients to not having time to pee during a shift30 Least Stressful Nursing Jobs (That Also Pay Well) in 2023The 15 happiest nurse jobsThe 10 Least Stressful Nursing Jobs This Year (2022)

What Contributes to Nurse Burnout?

There are many factors that contribute to a Nurse’s overall sense of burnout. From feeling overworked to dealing with difficult staff members and patients, we’ve gathered all of the most useful statistics:

• 80.19% of nurses feel burnt out due to low staffing, making it the #1 reason for burnout.

  Others among the top five reasons include: emotional exhaustion (76.41%), high workload demands (75.73%), workplace culture (66.41%), and lack of respect (59.32%).

  Reasons for Feeling Burnt Out

  Reason for feeling burnt-out	Share of nurses
  Low staffing	80.19%
  Emotional exhaustion	76.41%
  High workload demands	75.73%
  Workplace culture	66.41%
  Lack of respect	59.32%
  Physical Exhaustion	55.73%
  Pay/Benefits	38.35%
  COVID-19 patient care	38.16%
  Interruptions during time off	34.47%
  Verbal abuse/bullying	31.65%



• 26.47% of nurses don’t feel comfortable discussing burnout with their superior.

  And it’s not hard to see why, as of the just over 60% of nurses who have discussed the issue, 55.15% have reported that their superior either did nothing or retaliated against them.

  Have you reported feeling burnt-out to a superior?	Share of nurses
  Yes, and my employer did nothing to fix the problem	44.08%
  No, I do not feel comfortable addressing the issue	26.47%
  Yes, and I faced retaliation in the workplace	11.07%
  No, I have not experienced any issues	7.22%
  No, I don’t know who to report to	5.68%
  Yes, and my employer implemented changes to fix the issue	5.49%

• 24% of facilities report nurse staffing shortages.

  And this trend will likely only get worse, with 92% of nurses indicating that the labor shortage will intensify within the next 18 months (through 2023).

• 98% of hospital nurses report that their work is physically and mentally demanding.

  Between understaffing and the increased number of patients seen within the past few years, nurses have seen the demands of their role increase. In fact, 85% of nurses report these demands are making them feel fatigued.

Burnout in the Medical Field

Nurses and other medical professionals can experience more or less fatigue depending on where they work, and this is especially true for nurses working in understaffed hospitals. To find out more about burnout in the medical field, here are some insights our research uncovered:

• 92% of nurses report feeling fatigued from work.

  In fact, a whopping 71% of nurses report that they feel fatigued “very often” as opposed to just sometimes.

• 81% of Critical Care nurses experience symptoms of burnout.

  Being a critical care nurse isn’t easy, as those who work in this position experience more burnout symptoms than any other type of nurse. In fact, the average critical care nurse is more than 2X more likely to experience burnout symptoms than other nurses.

• Critical Care and Neurology nurses have the highest rate of burnout at 48%.

  While the physicians with the lowest rate of burnout are those in plastic surgery, at only 23%.

  Medical Field and the Burnout Rate

  Medical field	Burnout rate
  Critical Care	48%
  Neurology	48%
  Family Medicine	47%
  Ob/Gyn	46%
  Internal Medicine	46%
  Emergency Medicine	45%
  Radiology	45%
  Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation	44%
  Urology	44%
  Allergy & Immunology	44%
  General Surgery	43%
  Cardiology	43%
  Otolaryngology	42%
  Pulmonary Medicine	41%
  Pediatrics	41%
  Infectious Diseases	40%
  Nephrology	40%
  Oncology	39%
  Gastroenterology	38%
  Anesthesiology	38%
  Rheumatology	38%
  Psychiatry	36%
  Public Health & Preventive Medicine	36%
  Diabetes & Endocrinology	35%
  Orthopedics	34%
  Ophthalmology	33%
  Pathology	32%
  Dermatology	32%
  Plastic Surgery	23%

• 44% of nurses worry the quality of their patient care is negatively affected by burnout.

  Many nurses begin to feel a lack of compassion for patients once burnout becomes severe, which ultimately causes patient care to suffer. This is a very serious issue, as inadequate patient care can have life-threatening consequences.

Nursing Burnout Statistics FAQ

1. Why is burnout so common in nursing?

   Burnout is common in nursing due to the fact that it’s a high-stress environment. This is because issues like poor staffing ratios, inadequate organization, lack of time off, and subpar leadership can all permeate the field.

   See Also

   Nurses’ job stress and its impact on quality of life and caring behaviors: a cross-sectional study

   In fact, just over 80% of nurses feel burnt out due to a lack of staffing, an issue which can lead to all of the issues mentioned above.

2. Which field of nursing has the highest burnout rate?

   Critical care nurses suffer the highest rates of burnout. More specifically, a whopping 81% of crucial care nurses experience symptoms of burnout.

   This is mainly due to the nature of the job, as critical care nurses work specialize in the emergency department (ED) and intensive care unit (ICU). As such, their work environment is constantly fast-paced, meticulous, and demanding.

3. How many nurses leave the profession due to burnout?

   44% of the nurses who leave their profession do so due to burnout. In fact, it’s the #1 most cited reason for nurses leaving.

   With that in mind, if there are 4.3 million nurses and up to 1.5 million plan to leave by the end of 2022, that means up to 660,000 nurses could be leaving their jobs due to burnout.

4. What percentage of nurses quit in the first five years?

   Over 50% of nurses quit within the first five years. More specifically, over 17% quit within the first year, and a whopping 56% quit after the first two years.

   This issue has also been exacerbated by the COVID-19 Pandemic, as 95% of nurses have reported feeling burnt out within the past three years.

Conclusion

Between huge understaffing issues and stressful patient care, nurses all over the US are struggling with stress and burnout. In fact, 2.7 million nurses now report feeling burnt out.

And this issue has been made even more pressing due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, as burnout rates have risen to 62%, and 95% of nurses have reported feeling burnt out within the past three years.

Overall, the issue will continue to grow worse if more nurses continue to leave the field, as this will heighten understaffing issues. To address the issue, employers will need to work to improve work environments.

References:

1. Nursing CE. “Nursing CE Central: Nurse Burnout Study 2021.” Accessed on September 26th, 2022.

2. PMC. “Burnout and Resilience among Frontline Nurses during COVID-19 Pandemic.” Accessed on September 26th, 2022.

3. Forbes. “Amid Healthcare’s Great Resignation, Burned Out Workers Are Pursuing Flexibility And Passion.” Accessed on September 26th, 2022.

4. NSI. “2022 NSI National Health Care Retention & RN Staffing Report.” Accessed on September 26th, 2022.

5. EHR. “Nurses Report Decreased Levels of EHR Burnout Compared to Physicians.” Accessed on September 26th, 2022.

6. Supplemental Health Care. “Nurses Dealing With Compassion Fatigue Have Options.” Accessed on September 26th, 2022.

7. RNnetwork. “Survey Finds Nearly Half of Nurses Considering Leaving the Profession.” Accessed on September 26th, 2022.

8. Fierce Healthcare. “Third of nurses plan to leave their jobs in 2022, survey finds.” Accessed on September 26th, 2022.

9. Fierce Healthcare. “Nursing shortage looms large and projected to intensify in next 18 months: report.” Accessed on September 26th, 2022.

10. NIH. “Fatigue and the Female Nurse: A Narrative Review of the Current State of Research and Future Directions.” Accessed on September 26th, 2022.

11. Medscape. “Medscape Report.” Accessed on September 26th, 2022.