Nursing Trends Survey: Turnover ‘Eased Slightly,’ But Recruitment Struggles Persist

• The American Nurse Journal’s 2024 Nursing Trends and Salary Survey found turnover has “eased slightly,” but recruitment is still an issue. 
• Some facilities are offering sign-on bonuses in the thousands to encourage nurses to accept positions. 
• Meanwhile, nurses still say they have concerns about workplace violence. 

Turnover has “eased slightly” in the nursing profession, but recruitment is still a struggle, according to a recent survey. 

The American Nurse Journal’s 2024 Nursing Trends and Salary Survey found that 48% of respondents reported increased turnover compared to 54% in 2023. 

“None of these findings suggest that staffing shortages have disappeared across the country,” wrote David J. Gilmartin and Cynthia Saver, MS, RN. “Many nurses continued to cite concerns about adequate staffing, now and in the future, as one of their chief concerns when asked, ‘What about the future workforce and/or workplace keeps you awake at night?’” 

Nurse managers reported having a harder time filling vacancies in 2024 than the prior year. 

Recruitment Concerns Continue in Nursing Trends Survey

One nurse who responded to the survey said recruiting nurses in remote areas is “difficult, which affects the distribution of medical resources across the country.” Another noted the “unpredictable environment of politics.” 

Some facilities, like the Guthrie Clinic in the northeast, are offering signing bonuses in the thousands to entice nurses. The clinic’s bonuses range from $25,000 to $75,000 based on experience and specialty. Others are offering incentives in the $5,000 range. 

Pay is among the issues that recruiters and nurse leaders see when trying to bring in new staff.  

“The big problem with finding caregivers is the pay,” Betsy Walker, Client Care Liaison for Golden Care of NEPA, told Fox 56. “But we can only pay as much as what the insurance reimburses, but there is a shortage and for anybody to say there isn’t, it doesn’t matter, it can be a home health CNA, LPN or RN there is a nursing shortage.” 

Other Findings

Nurse managers and clinical nurses both expressed more job satisfaction and the number of nurses believed they were “very emotionally healthy” nearly doubled. 

However, workplace safety remains a concern despite the percentage of nurses reporting physical violence decreasing to 16% from 22% and the percentage of nurses reporting verbal abuse or bullying decreasing to 48% from 52%. 

“No one understands that if you report certain people that there is some type of reprisal from that person to you,” one respondent told the surveyors. “Is it fair? No, but it happens, and I have seen it over and over again. There are times I have seen it, and the person reported only for them to continue with the bullying but more aggressively.” 

Some nursing associations, such as Massachusetts’, have been pushing for legislation that would help curb workplace violence. Katy Murphy, president of the Massachusetts Nurses Association and an ICU nurse, told Statehouse News the organization has, for the past few years, supported a measure that would require facilities to conduct an annual safety risk assessment.  

“I will remind people that I work at a hospital where a physician was shot to death on campus,” she said. “Workplace violence isn’t theoretical to me. I don’t want to walk through a metal detector, I want our hospitals to be open so that patients and families can come in, but we need a risk assessment. If you’re assaulted, the bill [also enables you to] take time off to press charges or talk to the DA without it coming out of your own vacation time. Right now, if you want to do that, it’s your own time off, after you’ve just been hit over the head at work, stabbed with scissors, bitten.”

The Bottom Line

Despite some areas of improvement, the nursing profession is still struggling to recruit new practitioners. The American Nurse Journal’s 2024 Nursing Trends and Salary Survey, released in early February, details the issues. Staffing, medical technology, and turnover were also among concerns voiced by the nurses who participated in the survey. 

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