Nursing turnover continues to be a substantial challenge for healthcare organizations as the nursing shortage remains high nationwide, and in California, with no particular solution on the horizon.

A study from Nursing Solutions Inc. (NSI) showed that actual reported hospital and staff RN turnover increased from 18 percent in fiscal year 2020 to 27 percent in fiscal year 2021; the same March 2022 study reported that the workforce lost about 2.5 percent of RNs in 2021. In the latest NSI report (March 2023), turnover reduced to 23 percent in fiscal year 2022 but still remains elevated compared with prepandemic levels.

A Health Affairs study published in April 2022 found that the RN workforce fell by about 100,000 by the end of 2021, which is a “far greater drop than ever observed over the past four decades.” This decline was particularly pronounced among midtenure nurses (aged 35 to 49).

Career satisfaction, intention to leave jobs, and mental health and wellbeing issues among registered nurses have gotten significantly worse since the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the AMN Healthcare 2023 Survey of Registered Nurses.

The AMN Healthcare 2023 Survey of Registered Nurses, based on responses from more than 18,000 nurses in January 2023, found that career satisfaction dropped by 10 percentage points since the middle of the pandemic in 2021. In addition, the likelihood of encouraging others to become a nurse declined 14 points since 2021.

So this data begs the question about possible solutions.

In 2022, the US Department of Labor budgeted $80 million to encourage not-for-profit organizations, educational institutions, and tribal organizations to apply for grants of up to $6 million each to train current and former nurses to become nursing educators and frontline healthcare workers to train for nursing careers.

At the local level, CalMatters reports that the California Legislature is looking at several ideas to address the nursing shortage by bringing more early-career nurses into the field. But so far, the groups with most to gain – or lose – are at odds over how to solve the staffing problems afflicting California’s health care workforce.

Labor organizations and hospitals want nursing schools to prioritize certain applicants for admission, such as people who already have experience in the industry. But the schools say that won’t help them graduate more nurses. They need more faculty and more hands-on training opportunities to increase class sizes.

Hospitals and unions say they don’t have much time to waste. Estimates show California faces a shortage of about 36,000 licensed nurses, according to the UC San Francisco Health Workforce Research Center on Long-Term Care.

Labor advocates say the nursing shortage creates a vicious cycle. The nurses on shift wind up doing more work. They get burned out and flee the industry, worsening the problem.

Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals turned their attention to the state’s community college system, where graduates can earn degrees to become nursing assistants, licensed vocational nurses or registered nurses. Both groups say community colleges offer the most affordable and efficient way to earn a nursing degree.

But community college and some university nursing school leaders contend they cannot boost the number of graduates. Nursing programs are full, they say, and the proposals do nothing to expand the number of admission slots.

About 14,000 new students enrolled in nursing programs during the 2020-21 school year, according to the Board of Registered Nursing’s annual school report. That’s about 1,000 fewer students than the previous two years due to smaller class sizes, but schools across the state received more than 55,000 applications, a 10-year record.

United Nurses Associations of California/United Health Care Professionals lobbied for a $300 million investment over five years to double the state’s nursing school capacity. It was included in the state budget Gov. Gavin Newsom signed earlier this summer. The details of how the money will be spent have not been decided.