Approximately 100,000 registered nurses left the US workforce during the Covid-19 pandemic in the past two years due to stress, burnout and retirement, according to a survey by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing Inc. released today. Another 610,388 registered nurses reported an intent to leave the workforce by 2027 due to stress, burnout and retirement.

“The data is clear: The future of nursing and the US healthcare ecosystem is at an urgent crossroads,” said Maryann Alexander, chief officer of nursing regulation at NCSBN. “The pandemic has stressed nurses to leave the workforce and has expedited an intent to leave in the near future, which will become a greater crisis and threaten patient populations if solutions are not enacted immediately.”

The report also found that an additional 188,962 nurses younger than 40 years old reported intentions to leave the healthcare workforce. Altogether, about one-fifth of registered nurses across the US are projected to leave the healthcare workforce.

The report, which also examined the personal and professional characteristics of nurses experiencing heightened workplace burnout and stress due to the pandemic, found that 62% of those surveyed reported an increased workload during the pandemic. In addition, a quarter to half of the nurses reported feeling emotionally drained (50.8%), used up (56.4%), fatigued (49.7%), burned out (45.1%) or at the end of their rope (29.4%) a few times a week or every day.

The report analyzed a subset of the 2022 National Nursing Workforce Study. It included 29,472 registered nurses and 24,061 licensed practical and vocational nurses across 45 states.