NJ Nurses Are Quitting In Droves, Union Says – Here’s Why

NEW JERSEY — New Jersey’s nurses are feeling unappreciated, underpaid and so stressed out that nearly three of four are thinking about quitting their jobs. And a large reason why is an ongoing “crisis” with low staffing levels, advocates say.

Recently, Health Professionals and Allied Employees (HPAE) – New Jersey’s largest union of nurses and health care workers – released findings from a survey that should serve as a “wake up call” for the Garden State, it said.

Here are some of the highlights from the study, which was conducted by Change Research and surveyed 512 current and recent nurses in “primarily bedside facing roles” at New Jersey hospitals from Aug. 10 to 16:

• Nearly a third of nurses have left the bedside (hospitals) in the past three years
• Of those nurses currently at the bedside, 72% have considered leaving recently
• Newer nurses are the most likely to be considering leaving the bedside (95% of those with 5 years of experience or less)
• The number one reason nurses are leaving hospitals is poor staffing
• The second is related to the first: burnout and stress

HPAE President Debbie White said the union called for the study to take a look at the current state of nursing in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. But once they saw the results, it raised new alarms.

“The staffing crisis in hospitals is chilling and must be addressed immediately,” White urged.

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While some veteran nurses are pushing through the pain, many younger nurses new to the profession may be deciding that the job isn’t worth the stress, the data suggests.

“This finding validates a concern of experienced nurses in HPAE’s focus groups that there may be too few younger nurses to fill the ranks as they retire and their observation that younger nurses are less tolerant of a lack of work-life balance,” the union stated.

“As a nurse for more 35 years, most of it in critical care, I constantly struggle to manage the stress of providing care for my patients as so many of my fellow nurses have left the bedside,” HPAE Local 5105 President Sheryl Mount said.

“Mentoring the next generation means having to help prepare them on how to provide care, but also how to protect their profession,” Mount said. “This is a burden on nurses who are exhausted and feel abused.”

But none of this should be a surprise – and it’s not entirely the pandemic’s fault, union leaders said.

“Make no mistake, unsafe staffing has been an issue for many years,” White insisted. “In the past, we’ve seen staffing has been a line item cut down to its lowest amount, in order for hospitals to maximize profits. This has been a problem for a very long time. But the pandemic has greatly exacerbated a chronic problem created by the hospitals themselves.”

With inflation on the rise, many nurses say that their pay isn’t keeping up with the rising stress and dangers they faced on the job amid the pandemic. Over 60 percent of all of the nurses surveyed reported they didn’t get any sort of bonus in the past three years, and only 31 percent received hazard pay in the past three years – despite putting themselves and their loved ones at risk.

The state’s nurses aren’t willing to sit by and wait for hospital administrations to fix the problem any longer, White said.

“[We] have spoken, now it is time for lawmakers to listen to their nurses, not just hospital administrators,” White concluded. “We need safe staffing levels; we need to properly train newer nurses and reward us for we are the ones who save lives.”

• See related article: NJ Nurses Push For Hazard Pay, 'Safe Staffing' Amid Pandemic
• See related article: NJ Health Care Could Collapse If Nurses Stay Left Behind, Advocates Say

HEALTH CARE WORKERS ORGANIZE IN NEW JERSEY

Nurses and other health care professionals across New Jersey have been organizing and demanding better pay, staffing levels and working conditions across the state since the pandemic began.

Catch up with a few recent stories in New Jersey below (click headlines to read the article).

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Nursing Home Workers Plan To Picket Complete Care At Clark

The workers plan to protest unfair labor practices and the loss of their health insurance, retirement benefits and holidays on Tuesday.

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