Nearly 60% of today’s nursing students envision careers that take them away from direct patient care — even while they’re still in school, a new survey finds.
Elsevier Health released the third installment of its Clinician of the Future 2023: Education Edition series Monday, looking at the experiences of nursing and medical students. It pinpointed consequences of the ongoing pressures on frontline workers when it comes to the country’s healthcare system.
Twenty-three percent of students are considering quitting their undergraduate studies, while 54% are worried about their mental health. Already, 57% of students believe they will suffer from clinician burnout and 65% worry about clinician shortages.
Perhaps most striking is that 58% say that their studies are “a stepping stone toward a broader career in healthcare that will not involve directly caring for patients,” Elsevier Health said in a press release announcing its survey results.
Sherrie Dornberger, executive director of the National Association of Directors of Nursing Administration, told McKnight’s Long-Term Care News on Monday that many of today’s students are more interested in pursuing an advanced practice nursing degree than “bedside nursing.”
“They want to skip bedside nursing due to shortage of staff, and getting beaten, threatened and harmed by patients, residents and family members,” she said. “They are getting their APN so they can set their own hours and get paid more for their worth. Many are also getting Master’s [degrees] in Administration to be nursing home administrators, and vice presidents of nursing, chief nursing officers, or work as legal nurse advisors, consultants or whatever else they can do working remotely. It’s very sad, but I can see why they are pushed in this direction.”
That’s a problem for skilled nursing facilities, which are being pressured, and increasingly required, to hire more nursing staff to deliver direct patient care. Few employ advanced practice nurses, but all depend on the bedside care of frontline nurses and nurse aides.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has said it will spend $75 million to bolster the nursing pipeline as part of its efforts to impose a federal nursing home staffing mandate. Monday’s report, however, seems to indicate that just pushing more individuals into nursing school won’t necessarily equate to the kind of workforce development US nursing homes need.
The report also comes as nursing schools are turning away thousands of students, in some cases because of too few faculty members. On Friday, Iowa Rep. Zach Nunn (R) announced legislation to address the nursing shortage through grants to training programs. The Train More Nurses Act would direct more funding to community colleges, which often train skilled nursing nurses, and also focus on nurse faculty retention.
Meanwhile, Elsevier’s report also looked at the potential that artificial intelligence systems could have in healthcare and found that 62% of students are excited about the advanced technology but understand the need for caution. Just more than half — 51% — said they have “some worries” about how AI could impact education, and 56% said they have “fears” about the impact generative AI could have on the healthcare community. Fully 60% said that digital health technologies could be a burden on clinicians.
The survey was conducted via an online questionnaire in April and May and included 2,212 nursing and medical students from 91 countries.
