Nurses’ mental health has shown modest improvement since 2020, according to a study released this week by travel nurse platform Trusted Health.

Trusted’s report noted nurses’ mental health has shown modest improvements since the inception of the survey amidst the pandemic on a scale of one to 10. The average rating for 2023 was 6.6, up from 5.8 in 2022, 5.7 in 2021 and 5.4 in 2020.

Further, negative outcomes linked to mental health have shown a decline across all categories over the past year, with the occurrence of moral injury down 28%, followed by compassion fatigue and suicidal thoughts, falling 27% and 25%, respectively.

Still, more than half of all nurses said they are either actively looking for a job away from the bedside or outside of nursing completely, had plans to do so within the next year or were planning to retire from the workforce entirely.

Top factors negatively impacting nurses’ mental health include staffing shortage (80%), patient assignments (55%) and the atmosphere in a respondent’s unit or department (53%). On the other hand, factors positively impacting nurses’ mental health were pay and salary changes (39%), the atmosphere in a respondent’s unit or department (36%) and how prepared they felt to do their job (35%).

Additionally, 70% of nurses reported that their direct managers have never inquired about their mental health, while only one in five nurses stated they were asked about their mental health in the past year, and only one in 10 have been offered some coaching or support.

The report also found nurses who graduated from nursing school post-pandemic are 61% more likely to have become a preceptor in their first year than those who graduated pre-pandemic. While almost a quarter of nurses, 24%, reported becoming a charge nurse less than one year into their career. Of those nurses who reported taking on an advanced responsibility one year or less into their careers, 38% said it impacted their mental health negatively.

Overall, nurses who report positive mental health are twice as likely to work at a hospital with a peer support program compared to those who rated their mental health as negative. Conversely, nurses who report overall negative mental health are almost twice as likely, 92%, to indicate that their hospital doesn’t provide any benefits.

The 2023 frontline nurse mental health and well-being survey includes responses from more than 1,900 nurses and was conducted online in April.