Over
one-third of baby boomer nurses plan to retire in the next one to three
years, find a non-nursing job, work part-time, or work as travel
nurses, a new survey indicates.
Conducted by AMN Healthcare, the largest health care staffing firm
in the country, the survey of 1,830 nurses age 45-60 suggests that many
baby boomer nurses may be facing career burn-out. About 46 percent of
those surveyed said that working as a nurse has become less satisfying
in the last five years, about twice the number who said nursing has
become more satisfying. Less than half of those surveyed (43 percent)
said they would choose nursing as a career if they were starting out
today, and only about 48 percent said they would recommend nursing as a
career to their children or to other young people.
Number one on the list of job frustrations for those surveyed was
nurse staffing shortages. Over 80 percent of nurses identified nurse
staffing shortages as one of their top professional frustrations.
Over 1,250,000 nurses in the United States are between the ages of
45 and 60, notes Marcia Faller, RN, executive vice president of AMN
Healthcare. Should even ten percent of these nurses retire or find
non-nursing jobs in the next one to three years, over 120,000 nurses
would be removed from the workforce.
"It is critical that we find ways to keep baby boomer nurses
engaged in patient care," Faller observes. "Without them, we will be
hard pressed to meet the needs of baby boomer patients."
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