More Than Half of US Health Care Workers Plan to Switch Jobs, Poll Finds

The survey highlights the industry’s key challenges: retaining, supporting, and developing a workforce facing turnover, burnout, and dissatisfaction.

A health care worker gets a person's blood pressure. Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Workforce shortages in the health care industry could become an even more pressing issue as more than half of current health care employees say they plan to look for new positions or switch to new roles within the next year, a new report by the Harris Poll said.

The report, released on Sept. 15 in conjunction with Strategic Education Inc., highlights primary concerns in the industry, mainly retaining, supporting, and developing a workforce that’s plagued by high employee turnover, burnout, and dissatisfaction.

According to the report, 37 percent of health care employees are satisfied with their current positions, and 32 percent feel valued by their current employers. Meanwhile, dissatisfaction is leading more than half of health care workers to either plan their exit from current organizations or look for new roles entirely.

Emotional fatigue, burnout, poor pay, inadequate benefits, and lack of career advancement or educational opportunities are primary reasons employees feel unsatisfied with their jobs, the report found. Retaining employees, especially keeping millennials and Gen Zers interested in health care jobs, is crucial to meeting the ever-growing demand for health care from America’s rapidly aging population, the report noted.

According to the Census Bureau, all baby boomers will be at least 65 years old by 2030. More than 73 million American citizens are expected to impact the capacity of America’s health care system, which is already projected to have a shortage of nearly 700,000 critical workers by 2037, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) reported. Job shortages are expected to be greatest among registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, and physicians, the HRSA noted.

Jennifer Musil, global president of research at the Harris poll, said the research paints an alarming picture of a workforce at a crossroads.

“Given the unprecedented need for care driven by the aging baby boomer population, these findings offer critical insights into how to better retain, support, and prepare the people at the heart of our nation’s health care system,” Musil said.

The solution, at least in part, is to provide increased career development and educational opportunities to healthcare workers.

Three-quarters of employees surveyed said that receiving additional education would help them improve their career—and earnings—potential. The majority of more than 300 health care employers agree that they have an obligation to help employees advance their careers, with higher education being the ticket to better-paying positions, the poll report said.

Even when educational opportunities are presented to employees, real-world demands stymie those efforts, the report found. Nearly half of employees polled said they don’t have time to pursue additional education, and 44 percent said the financial burden of tuition is keeping them on the sidelines.

Adele Webb, executive dean of Health Care Initiatives at Strategic Education, said investment in the advancement of employees is central to ensuring that the health care workforce feels appreciated, valued, and prepared.

“As a nurse for more than 42 years, I have seen the expectation for employer-sponsored education grow among my colleagues as pressures and anxieties brought on by staff shortages and new technologies increase,” Webb said.

“This survey shows that continuing education should be at the heart of a strong health care retention strategy.”

The path forward for employers is to make educational benefits a top priority. Future initiatives could include covering tuition and offering employees time off to pursue educational opportunities, the report noted.

The Harris Poll report was conducted online on behalf of Strategic Education Inc. More than 1,500 full-time health care workers in direct-care positions, as well as 304 health care employers, were polled between late June and July.