Nurses week is coming soon! In the U.S. It runs from May 6 (National Nurse’s Day) to May 12 (Florence Nightingale’s birthday and International Nurses Day). My hospital system will be celebrating from the 4th to the 8th or so.

Interestingly (and in a rather timely manner if you ask me) a recent report came out that concluded that the number of nurses experiencing a high level of burnout is, well, it’s a lot. It was high before, during, and after the pandemic. It’s around half. Half of all nurses experiencing a high level of burnout.

This is so disheartening. But it doesn’t surprise me.

In Hospital Nursing Has Not Returned to Pre-COVID Conditions, the study authors found that nurses’ job dissatisfaction and intent to leave their employer has increased. Their objective had been to see if management responsiveness, hospital nursing resources (like staffing ratios) and nurse outcomes (like high burnout and intent to leave employer) had returned to at least pre-pandemic levels. And they haven’t.

This article by Christine Weeks discusses the report and has a good chart comparison of pre- and post-pandemic levels.

A lot of nurses don’t want to stay where they’re currently at. If 1/3 of the nurses want to leave their current job, not as many nurses are entering the field, and we have boomers retiring- who is going to be left?

I wonder if… when I’m 90 years old and in the hospital… is it going to be a robot giving me my meds and doing bed turns? I’m not even kidding! I think this is where we’re headed. And maybe this won’t be a humanoid robot but some type of robot nonetheless. It’s not that I don’t think there will be nurses. Unless there are some major changes though, I just don’t think there will be enough.

So when nurses week rolls around in a few weeks, if you happen to know a nurse, don’t just say thank you. Give them a candy bar, or take them out for coffee, or better yet- dinner. Get them some flowers! They’ll love it. It won’t solve the nursing shortage, but that nurse might feel a little bit more appreciated.