CNOs believe current nurse shortages are negatively affecting patient care and staff morale, and project the shortages will worsen in the future, according to a the results of nurse leaders survey released April 5.
The 2017 survey, conducted by AMN Healthcare, BE Smith, and The Center for the Advancement of Healthcare Professionals, involved 223 nurse leaders. Participants included CNOs and nurse leaders with titles such as chief nurse executive, director of nursing and vice president of nursing, senior vice president, COO, clinical nurse leader, and clinical administrator.
Here are seven survey findings.
Nursing shortage
1. Seventy-two percent of CNO respondents described the nursing shortage at their organization as moderate, significant or severe. Twenty-one percent described their organization's nursing shortage as slight, while only 7 percent said there was not a shortage.
2. Nearly 30 percent of CNOs said they expect the nursing shortage at their organization to worsen in one year. Forty-three percent expect it to worsen in two years, and 61 percent expect it to worsen in five years.
3. A majority of CNOs (61 percent) said they don't think their organization's nursing shortage will change in one year. However, only 40 percent said they don't think their organization's nursing shortage will change in two years, and an even smaller number —17 percent — said they don't think it will change in five years.
Nurse recruitment
4. More than 80 percent of CNOs said their organization had moderate, significant or severe difficulty in recruiting nurses, according to the survey.
5. CNOs said lack of access to high-quality talent (32 percent), as well as their organization's location (37 percent), are primary contributing factors to difficulty in recruiting nurses.
Patient care and nurse morale
6. Nearly 80 percent of CNOs said staffing shortages in their organization have a slight, considerable or great negative impact on patient care.
7. Sixty-one percent of CNOs said staffing shortages in their organization have a considerable or great negative impact on nurse morale.
Read more about the findings here.
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