Only 45 percent of nurses report being "fully engaged" at work while 14.1 percent report being "unengaged," according to the 2023 "PRC National Nursing Engagement Report."
The report, done by market research and consulting company PRC, surveyed more than 1,900 nurses at 37 hospitals. The survey asked about retention, burnout and engagement issues.
Here are seven more findings:
- Of nurses, 14.1 percent said they were "unengaged," meaning they do the bare minimum and are ambivalent about the success of their hospital. Meanwhile, 40.5 percent said they were "engaged" or play it safe within their role at work and like their hospital but do not love it.
- The three drivers of engagement were autonomy, RN-to-RN teamwork and collaboration and leadership access and responsiveness.
- Millennials had the highest rates of unengaged nurses (17.1 percent) compared to Generation X (14 percent) and baby boomers (10.5 percent).
- The night shift also had more unengaged nurses at 18.4 percent compared with 12.8 percent of day shift nurses.
- Emergency departments had the highest rate of unengaged nurses at 18 percent, followed by inpatient settings (14.7 percent) and other settings (14.3 percent).
- Overall, 82 percent of nurses plan to remain at their organization for the next two years, and 50 percent of unengaged nurses plan to stay.
- Of unengaged nurses, 41 percent report feeling burn out, compared with 15.6 percent average across all nurses.