Majority of young nurses overwhelmed, exhausted over the last year: 5 key survey findings

By Erica Carbajal for Becker’s Hospital Review

About 71 percent of young nurses said they felt overwhelmed over the past year, according to survey results published March 10 — just ahead of the March 11 anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic’s start.

The American Nurses Foundation, the charitable branch of the American Nurses Association, collected responses from 22,316 nurses between Jan. 19 and Feb. 16.

Four more findings:

1. Eighty-one percent of nurses aged 34 and younger report feeling exhausted over the last year and 65 percent said they felt anxious or unable to relax.
2. Among nurses who said they plan to leave the profession, 47 percent cited work having a negative effect on their health and well-being as a main factor, followed by insufficient staffing at 45 percent.
3. Among the 30 percent of nurses surveyed who haven’t been vaccinated against COVID-19, 46 percent identify as Black or African American.
4. While the majority, 73 percent, of respondents said they had adequate personal protective equipment at the time they were surveyed, 33 percent reported there was no communication plan regarding PPE inventory at their workplace.