A new Morning Consult survey found that 26 percent of U.S. health care workers have considered leaving their job since the pandemic spread to the United States last January. Included in that share are 14 percent who say that COVID-19 has left them thinking that they might leave the health care profession altogether.
A notable share of the 1,000 health care workers surveyed have already exited their roles. The poll found that 11 percent have been laid off or lost their job since Feb. 15, 2020, including 5 percent because of financial constraints felt by their former employer. And another 11 percent said they resigned from their position during that time period.
The survey, which was conducted Jan. 4-9 and has a margin of error of 3 percentage points, underlines an especially stark fear among health policy experts and administrators: that looming medical staff shortages across the country, particularly in nursing, are an inexorable threat.
“It does not surprise me, but it does alarm me,” Dr. Janis Orlowski, chief health care officer at the Association of American Medical Colleges, said of the data. “After what everyone has been through so far and what we're continuing to go through, I can see where people may just want to take a break. They say that they may want to leave the industry, and maybe what they want to do is just take a break from the intensity of the work, and hopefully they'll come back.”
Though the share of health care workers who are thinking of leaving the industry is small, any defections would be especially damaging given widely accepted projections of staffing shortfalls.
Data from the Association of American Medical Colleges estimated that the United States could face a shortage of between 54,100 and 139,000 physicians by 2033, a projection that includes deficits in primary and specialty care.
The association’s June report also found that more than 40 percent of active physicians will be 65 or older over the next 10 years, and burnout could expedite retirements.
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