Since Incredible Health’s inception, we’ve made it our mission to help healthcare workers live better lives and find and do their best work. Deeply understanding and improving the nurse experience helps us achieve our mission. Time and time again , we’ve heard from nurses that they struggle with the basics of their profession: staffing shortages, limited career advancement, limited flexibility, and compensation. We know what nurses struggle with but not necessarily why.
It’s time to find out.
Today, we proudly unveil the findings of our 2023 Healthcare Executive Report, Incredible Health’s first-ever public study of health system executives. While our prior reports have focused on the preferences and perspectives of the more than 700,000 US nurses using the Incredible Health platform, this report dives into the thoughts of top health system executives shaping the healthcare industry.
Including input from 100 U.S. health system senior executives from both inside and outside the Incredible Health employer network, this report showcases their concerns, illuminates areas where nurses and leadership are misaligned, and highlights other areas where there remains room for improvement.
The report’s findings strike a chord of urgency. 94% of respondents described the severity of the nursing shortage in their health systems as critical, and 68% said they do not have the adequate nursing staff to manage another large-scale health crisis. There is a silver lining: healthcare executives, specifically those charged with hiring and retaining nurses, are embracing the opportunity to change their nurse hiring and retention methods to improve the nurse experience, and ultimately patient care.
Experience and tenure
Average nurse tenure and experience are pressing issues related to hiring.
40% of health system executives reported that more than a quarter of nurses in their system have less than a year of experience.
This is in stark contrast to what hospitals are looking for when hiring nurses: previous experience (43%) and qualifications (43%) are tied for the top factors they consider.
Overall, health systems reported that 53% of nurses had an average tenure of less than five years at their institution.
Misalignment between health systems and nurses
The findings of the study reveal a large disconnect between what nurses look for in an employer and what employers offer to hire and retain nurses.
Health system executives reported 80% of younger nurses requested more flexible scheduling, yet only 11% of health system executives surveyed actually offer more flexible schedules. Few hospitals are looking to flexibility as a hiring differentiator, and are focusing more on compensation.
On a similar note, despite a quarter of nurses pointing to limited career advancement training and opportunities as a reason they would leave nursing before retirement, many health systems are not prioritizing these programs and opportunities as a hiring and retention method.
Sign-on bonuses continue to be the primary method to attract nurses; more than one-third of hospital executives (35%) say they are still offering them.
Increasing salaries for nurses (26%) and improving patient-to-staff ratios (16%) are other hiring techniques used to attract talent.
Despite hospitals offering sign-on bonuses and higher salaries to attract talent, Incredible Health’s 2023 State of U.S. Nursing Report found that only one-third (33%) of nurses feel fairly compensated in their roles.
Generational chasm
Generational differences are impacting hospitals as younger nurses demand more from employers.
It is no surprise that nearly all (95%) health system executives have noticed generational differences within their nursing workforce in their approach to work and career growth. The U.S. nursing workforce is currently made up of four generations, from Gen Z to Baby Boomers, with an average age of 52 years, creating a wide age range which can lend to differing opinions, viewpoints, and expectations.
While over one-third (35%) of health system executive respondents point to conflicts between generations on teams, the majority of differences lie in what younger and older generations request from their employers.
In addition to far more flexible schedule requests from younger nurses, there are also large gaps in:
- compensation demands: 78% of younger nurses request increases vs. 48% of older nurses
- specialized roles: 54% of younger nurses seeking specialized roles vs. 14% of older nurses
- career advancement opportunities: 74% of younger nurses request opportunities vs. 8% of older nurses
Over three-quarters (79%) of executives pointed to a reduction in loyalty and tenure with younger nurses, in contrast to 21% in older nurses.
Temporary nurses
Travel nurses remain a band-aid solution to the nurse shortage in health systems.
Almost all (93%) health systems utilize travel nurses to keep up with patient demand, yet this is a reality that executives are eager to change, as temporary staff significantly impacts the health system’s bottom line with high costs, as well as a negative impact on the quality of patient care and culture in nursing units.
Nearly two-thirds of respondents (75%) noted that temporary nurses make up a quarter of their nursing staff.
Nearly all health system executives (96%) reported plans to prioritize permanent nurse staff over temporary staff. Over half of respondents are working towards this goal, as 55% did not increase the number of travel nurses within their hospital systems over the last year.
Looking ahead
By bridging the gap of what they think nurses want and what they are actually requesting, health systems can work towards solving nurse staffing issues in their facilities.
If your hospital is looking for a better way to hire and retain nurses, click here. Incredible Health’s award-winning marketplace technology helps your talent acquisition and nursing teams hire permanent, experienced nurses in 20 days or less, save at least $2 million per year per facility, and improve nurse retention. 75% of the nation’s top-ranked health systems and 700 US hospitals trust us with finding its most important resource: top, permanent nursing talent to deliver high-quality care.
If you’re a nurse looking to take control of your career and access Incredible Health’s suite of services for free, click here.
You can download the visual report that includes more data from the 2023 Healthcare Executive Report here.
Methodology
We surveyed executives from 100 hospitals and health systems in May 2023. Respondents included a mix of employers inside and outside the Incredible Health employer network. While anonymous, the survey included some of the largest health systems in the United States, academic medical centers, regional systems, community hospitals, in both urban and rural areas.
