Report shows alarming trends in nurse engagement: Burnout, generational differences highlighted

Editor's Note

A September 2023 report from market research and consulting company PRC and published by Nursing Academy looked at retention, burnout, and engagement issues among more than 1,900 nurses at 37 hospitals. The report found that only 45% of nurses report being “fully engaged” at work, while 14.1% percent report being unengaged or doing the bare minimum to meet their work requirements. 

Other findings include:

• The primary drivers of engagement were autonomy, RN-to-RN teamwork, collaboration, and leadership access, and responsiveness.
• There are generational differences; millennials had the highest rates of unengaged nurses (17.1%) compared to Generation X (14%) and baby boomers (10.5%).
• There were more unengaged nurses on the night shift (18.4%) compared with the day shift (12.8%).
• Emergency departments had the highest rate of unengaged nurses at 18%, followed by inpatient settings at 14.7%.

The report offers important insights into how nurses are responding to work pressures and points to deeper issues such as burnout that are driving disengagement and contribute to nurses leaving their roles.