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Medscape Nurse Career Satisfaction Report 2018
Laura A. Stokowski, RN, MS; Mary McBride; Emily Berry | January 23, 2019
| Contributor Information
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Medscape Nurse Career Satisfaction Report 2018
Laura A. Stokowski, RN, MS; Mary McBride; Emily Berry | January 23, 2019 | Contributor Information
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Medscape Nurse Career Satisfaction Report 2018
Laura A. Stokowski, RN, MS; Mary McBride; Emily Berry | January 23, 2019 | Contributor Information
Medscape invited practicing licensed practical nurses (LPNs), registered nurses (RNs), and advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs)—which included nurse practitioners (NPs), nurse midwives (NMs), clinical nurse specialists (CNSs), and certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNAs)—from the United States to participate in an online survey about earnings and career satisfaction. The following slides report the opinions of the entire sample of 10,284 nurses on issues ranging from most rewarding and worst aspects of nursing, whether they are glad they entered this field, and whether they'd choose nursing again if they had a "do-over." As in previous years, we asked early-career nurses about their initial job search, and later-career nurses about whether they feel prepared for their impending retirement.
If you'd like to comment on any of the findings in this report, go to slide 18.
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Medscape Nurse Career Satisfaction Report 2018
Laura A. Stokowski, RN, MS; Mary McBride; Emily Berry | January 23, 2019 | Contributor Information
Sometimes it seems miraculous that so many dedicated nurses are willing to devote their lives to such a stressful and demanding profession. Why is that? What is sufficiently rewarding about nursing to overcome the many downsides—long hours, grueling schedules, relatively low pay, and myriad frustrations of trying to provide quality nursing care in today's healthcare environment? It appears that the chief reward, for about 40% of RNs and LPNs, is helping people and making a difference in peoples' lives. The next most frequently reported were "working at a job that I like," "being very good at what I do," and "being proud of being a nurse/my nursing care." With increasing years of experience, nurses are more likely to cite "being very good at what I do" as most rewarding (5% at 1-5 years vs 12% at > 20 years).
Clearly, wages aren't near the top of the list of job satisfactions for most nurses. "The amount of money I make" was selected as most rewarding by only 1% of RNs and 2% of LPNs (data not shown).
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Medscape Nurse Career Satisfaction Report 2018
Laura A. Stokowski, RN, MS; Mary McBride; Emily Berry | January 23, 2019 | Contributor Information
Despite significant practice differences, 41%-50% of all APRNs identified "helping people/making a difference in peoples' lives" as the most rewarding aspect of their APRN roles. The exception was CRNAs, whose top choices for most rewarding job aspect were divided between "helping people" and "working to the full extent of my education, certification, and licensure" (a new choice for APRNs in this year's survey). Like other nurses, few APRNs identified the amount of money earned as being their chief professional reward.
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Medscape Nurse Career Satisfaction Report 2018
Laura A. Stokowski, RN, MS; Mary McBride; Emily Berry | January 23, 2019 | Contributor Information
The perceived rewards of any profession often reflect general societal trends, and one of these is a yearning for better work-life balance. In recent surveys, including this one, we've noticed a tendency for nurses (including APRNs) to comment on the desirability of positions that offer job security, flexibility in work hours, and the option of telecommuting. The fortunate nurses who have these benefits often see them as the primary rewards of their jobs. Many respondents also commented on the rewards of mentoring and developing the next generation of nurses and APRNs. Teaching, guiding, and sharing one's expertise with early-career nurses will become part of the legacy of thousands of nurses preparing to retire from the profession.
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Medscape Nurse Career Satisfaction Report 2018
Laura A. Stokowski, RN, MS; Mary McBride; Emily Berry | January 23, 2019 | Contributor Information
One constant in nursing is how much nurses loathe "workplace politics" and administrative issues, selected by about 1 in 4 nurses as the least satisfying aspect of their jobs. The amount of documentation required was in second place among RNs, but like last year, LPNs were more concerned about their pay. High patient-to-nurse ratios were more likely to be the major complaint of early-career nurses (1-5 years) than more experienced (> 20 years) nurses (19% vs 7%).
Small proportions (1%-3%) of nurses were least satisfied by having to work nights, weekends, and holidays; a lack of gratitude from patients; long shifts; physical job demands; and a fear of violence from patients and visitors (data not shown).
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Medscape Nurse Career Satisfaction Report 2018
Laura A. Stokowski, RN, MS; Mary McBride; Emily Berry | January 23, 2019 | Contributor Information
Dealing with workplace politics or interactions with administration was the "least satisfying" job characteristic for one third of CNSs. Other APRNs, however, had different views on what most dissatisfied them professionally. The volume of required documentation and "paperwork" was chosen by 20% of NPs, but 21% of CRNAs were more likely to be dissatisfied by not being able to practice to the full extent of their education, certification, and licensure. For 17% of NMs, the pressure to see a certain number of patients each day and not having enough time to spend with patients was least satisfying (also selected by 14% of NPs).
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Medscape Nurse Career Satisfaction Report 2018
Laura A. Stokowski, RN, MS; Mary McBride; Emily Berry | January 23, 2019 | Contributor Information
Many respondents offered comments about other aspects of their jobs or work settings that left them dissatisfied. This year, among these were many complaints about coworkers who didn't "cut the mustard," so to speak; who seemed to have a different work ethic from other colleagues or whose performance was substandard compared with other nurses, yet they received the same compensation. It's unclear whether these comments showcase a generation gap between older and younger nurses or whether a real trend is emerging among a subset of the nursing profession. Stay tuned.
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Medscape Nurse Career Satisfaction Report 2018
Laura A. Stokowski, RN, MS; Mary McBride; Emily Berry | January 23, 2019 | Contributor Information
One of the most reassuring findings in our career satisfaction survey is that an overwhelming majority of all nurses—RNs, LPNs, and APRNs—report that they are glad they chose their particular path within the nursing profession. Flipping the perspective on this question, however, we asked nurses about career regret. Naturally, within any profession, it's expected that a small proportion might have misgivings, and that's certainly true of nursing. But by any measure, the minority of respondents who seem to regret having pursued nursing or advanced practice nursing is quite small. Is it to be believed? We aren't sure, based on the next slide.
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Medscape Nurse Career Satisfaction Report 2018
Laura A. Stokowski, RN, MS; Mary McBride; Emily Berry | January 23, 2019 | Contributor Information
Another way to assess regret is to ask, "If you could do it all over again…" Here, 76% of RNs said they would again choose nursing as a career (22% would not), yet in the previous slide, 94% of RNs said they were glad they became nurses. We've seen this phenomenon in previous survey results and as yet don't have an explanation for it. It's easier to understand that nurses and APRNs might wish they'd ended up in a different practice setting, and that was true in our survey. Only 29%-38% of all respondents seemed satisfied with their practice setting, meaning that a sizable majority would change practice settings if they could start over. We also found a gender-related difference in overall career satisfaction. For example, among RNs, men were less likely than women to say they would choose nursing again (77% of women vs 67% of men).
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Medscape Nurse Career Satisfaction Report 2018
Laura A. Stokowski, RN, MS; Mary McBride; Emily Berry | January 23, 2019 | Contributor Information
We asked nurses and APRNs who were dissatisfied with their career choices or work circumstances to tell us about their plans. Remaining in the nursing profession but pursuing a different path was most frequently reported by all nurses and APRNs except CRNAs, who were most likely to say they were going to retire earlier than planned. Early retirement was, in fact, the next most frequent plan of those dissatisfied with nursing. LPNs were most likely to say they planned to leave nursing altogether to pursue new and different employment.
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Medscape Nurse Career Satisfaction Report 2018
Laura A. Stokowski, RN, MS; Mary McBride; Emily Berry | January 23, 2019 | Contributor Information
Many dissatisfied nurses shared their plans for more drastic career changes. Among the new directions that respondents planned to take were the "usual suspects" of medical school, advanced practice nursing, and academic/faculty positions. It's not unusual for unhappy nurses to want a new career yet remain within the realm of healthcare. But we also heard about some less conventional career plans, such as becoming a motivational speaker. Starting one's own business continues to be attractive to those who have become frustrated by manager-employee relationships or limited opportunities for promotion and upward mobility within the nursing profession.
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Medscape Nurse Career Satisfaction Report 2018
Laura A. Stokowski, RN, MS; Mary McBride; Emily Berry | January 23, 2019 | Contributor Information
Like most professions, nursing has no mandatory retirement age, so we were curious to know when nurses expected to retire. It's an important question in view of the ongoing, and worsening, nursing shortage. We found that "expected retirement" depended on the nurse respondent's age. Younger nurses expect to have relatively shorter careers overall than do older nurses. It's unclear whether this represents a generational difference in views toward working or is simply a consequence of older nurses finding that they aren't financially prepared to retire as planned. On average, those 65-year-old nurses plan to work another 3 years.
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Medscape Nurse Career Satisfaction Report 2018
Laura A. Stokowski, RN, MS; Mary McBride; Emily Berry | January 23, 2019 | Contributor Information
As we know from this survey, the physical and emotional challenges of nursing drive some nurses into early retirement. For others, unless disability is a factor, the decision to retire is mainly financial. So we asked older nurses (those who were less than 10 years from retirement) whether they were financially prepared for retirement. Even in this group of late-career nurses, less than half of RNs said no, they weren't financially ready to retire. Among APRNs, financial readiness was higher, ranging from 57% of NPs and NMs, and 60% of CNSs, to 77% of CRNAs (the group with the highest wages). At the other end of the payscale, only 30% of older LPNs felt financially ready to retire.
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Medscape Nurse Career Satisfaction Report 2018
Laura A. Stokowski, RN, MS; Mary McBride; Emily Berry | January 23, 2019 | Contributor Information
It's shameful how few employers (only 4%-7%) make accommodations to help nurses and APRNs continue to work when the job becomes too physically taxing as they near retirement age. Even being able to reduce one's work hours or shift to part-time work is relatively uncommon, reported by less than one third of nurses overall. Sadly, employers looking to replace their older nurses with far cheaper new-graduate nurses have little incentive to help nurses stay on the job. So it's somewhat surprising that they don't do more to help older nurses prepare for retirement. The availability of guidance on retirement planning doesn't even reach 50%.
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Medscape Nurse Career Satisfaction Report 2018
Laura A. Stokowski, RN, MS; Mary McBride; Emily Berry | January 23, 2019 | Contributor Information
Finally, we examined the challenges faced by early-career nurses, including how long it took to find their first nursing position, how much they earned in that first job, and whether their transition to professional practice was eased with a nursing residency program. The average nurse, whether RN, LPN, or NP, reported finding his or her first job relatively quickly—in less than 3 months. Starting pay correlates with position, with new NPs earning the most. Residency programs aren't universally offered, but they were reported more frequently in this survey compared with last year, increasing from 27% to 35% of RNs and from 7% to 18% of NPs.
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Medscape Nurse Career Satisfaction Report 2018
Laura A. Stokowski, RN, MS; Mary McBride; Emily Berry | January 23, 2019 | Contributor Information
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Medscape Nurse Career Satisfaction Report 2018
Laura A. Stokowski, RN, MS; Mary McBride; Emily Berry | January 23, 2019 | Contributor Information
Tell us what you think.
Do you agree with what your nursing peers find most and least rewarding about nursing? Are you happy with your career choices, or would you switch if given the chance? How soon do you expect to retire, and are you financially ready?
How do your wages compare with those of other nurses? Where in the United States are nurses paid the most and least? Does being certified boost a nurse's pay? Find out in our 2018 report.Medscape Features Slideshows, October 2018
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Comments on Medscape are moderated and should be professional in tone and on topic. You must declare any conflicts of interest related to your comments and responses. Please see our Commenting Guide for further information. We reserve the right to remove posts at our sole discretion.
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Laura A. Stokowski, RN, MS
Editorial Director
Medscape
Mary McBride
Associate Director, Market Research
Medscape
Emily Berry
Editor
Medscape
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