Findings seen among 4,043 RNs who recently left a hospital staff nurse job
WEDNESDAY, Feb. 18, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Adequate staffing tops the list of factors that can help hospitals reattract the registered nurse (RN) workforce, according to a research letter published online Feb. 9 in JAMA Network Open.
Karen B. Lasater, Ph.D., R.N., from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing in Philadelphia, and colleagues examined what factors, if addressed by employers, would be likely to reattract RNs to hospital employment. The analysis included data from 4,043 RNs who left a hospital job in the past five years and were not currently working in health care (from 10 states).
The researchers found that most nonretired RNs said adequate staffing (65 percent), flexible scheduling (59 percent), and better wages and benefits (59 percent) would increase their likelihood of returning. These top factors were reported as important to RNs of all ages, but they were particularly salient to younger RNs. Only 8 percent of respondents reported that nothing would bring them back.
“Unsafe staffing drives nurses away from hospital employment — and adequate staffing is the key to bringing them back,” Lasater said in a statement. “The problem and the solution are the same. High nurse turnover is a solvable crisis, because the reasons nurses leave are the same reasons they would return, if addressed.”
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