Publications

Dissatisfaction and Burnout on the Job

Nurses may constitute the single most dissatisfied profession in the United States. Dissatisfaction is surprisingly consistent across age, salary, years of experience and education. The problem is not with the person — it's with the job.5 Nearly one in four American nurses plan to leave their jobs within a year.6 When one recent survey asked nurses to describe how they felt at the end of a day, nearly 50 percent reported feeling "exhausted and discouraged" while 40 percent felt "powerless to affect change necessary for safe, quality patient care"; 26 percent felt "frightened for [their] patients"; and 24 percent felt frightened for themselves.7 Perhaps most disturbing, 55 percent of nurses report that they would not recommend a nursing career to a child or friend.8

Print Version