Why nurses leave the profession: pay, working conditions, and staffing

Health Administration

The purpose of this study is to show that there are many reasons why nurses leave their profession, but that financial reasons often rank very high on their list of concerns. Managed care issues and job dissatisfaction also play large roles in the minds of nurses when they decide to seek employment elsewhere. A review of current and pertinent literature indicates that most nurses are leaving because they are unhappy with pay and working conditions. These same reasons are cited by many of those who have considered being nurses and then changed their minds.

An analysis of the relevant data indicates that this trend is continuing and that nurses are much more put upon and underpaid than they used to be. This is not because they are being paid less, but because their salaries have not risen through the years like the salaries of other professions, and because nurses today are typically asked to do much more than they were even 10 or 20 years ago.

The study offers some recommendations as to how nursing can be improved and what can be done to entice more people to come into this field, so that the shortage of nurses in the United States can be lessened and eventually obliterated.

TOC CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION