'Nurse burnout' Googled most in Arizona, survey finds

Photo: Dean Mitchell/Getty Images

Nurse burnout can be measured in a number of ways, but a new survey has examined the 10 states in which nurses Googled the term "burnout" the most – and based on that metric, Arizona is the state in which nurses are currently experiencing the highest levels of burnout.

To determine the states experiencing the most nurse burnout, betternurse.org used data from Google Trends from October 21, 2023 to January 23, 2024 to gauge the relative search interest in the term "nurse burnout." Relative search interest doesn't reveal the exact number of searches, but instead provides a comparative insight into how frequently people searched for the term in one area versus another during different times.

Each value is scaled from 0 to 100, where 100 represents the peak popularity for the term for the given region and time frame. Since Arizona shows a relative search interest of 100, it means that, relative to the size of its population and the time frame considered, searches for this term were more popular in Arizona than in any other state during the same period.

Heidi Sanborn, president of the Arizona Nurses Association, told ABC15 that the state's burnout rate is due to multiple factors, including concerns over pay, stress, work-life balance and a rise in bedside violence.

Another factor is a critical shortage of nurses. According to HealthData.gov, Arizona had the fourth most severe shortage as of May 2021. More recent data from Scholaroo reports that Arizona has the seventh-highest shortage of nurses in the country.

WHAT'S THE IMPACT?

The states rounding out the top 10 in relative search interest in "nurse burnout" are New Jersey, Minnesota, Ohio, California, Texas, Florida, Michigan, New York and Illinois.

The survey also examined when nurses experience the highest level of burnout, and found that, since February 2019, the week where nurses experienced peak burnout was the week of April 17-23, 2022. That time period, of course, followed about two years of constant exposure to the challenging circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2022, the National Council of State Boards of Nursing released a report titled "Examining the Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Burnout & Stress Among U.S. Nurses." The most notable finding was that about 100,000 RNs had left the workforce in the previous two years due to stress, burnout and retirements.

NCSBN's research also indicated that younger and less experienced nurses were especially affected by the high workloads and burnout during the pandemic.

According to the survey authors, nurse burnout requires a concerted effort at all levels of healthcare. This includes individual nurses practicing self-care and seeking support, healthcare facilities implementing better staffing policies, and lawmakers enacting and enforcing standards to protect nurses.

THE LARGER TREND

A 2023 nurse.org survey showed 60% of nurses still love the profession. But 62% are concerned about the future.

The numbers are an improvement from 2021, but nurses are still reporting high levels of burnout, mental health issues and lack of support, among other hardships. About 39% of them said they were dissatisfied with their current job, though this answer varied based on education level and specialty.

Staffing issues and an ongoing nursing shortage continue to cause challenges for the nation's nursing workforce. A full 91% of respondents believe the nursing shortage is getting worse and that burnout, poor working conditions and inadequate pay are the primary causes.

Meanwhile, 79% said their units are inadequately staffed, while 71% said improving staffing ratios would have the greatest impact on the nursing shortage. And of course, nurses want better pay. Fifty-five percent saw a pay increase during the last year, but 75% still feel underpaid and 52% believe their hospital does not pay nurses with similar experience equally.

In the 2022 Nurse Salary Research Report, 29% of nurses said they were considering leaving the profession, a steep rise from the 11% who were considering such a move in the 2020 survey.

Jeff Lagasse is editor of Healthcare Finance News.
Email: jlagasse@himss.org
Healthcare Finance News is a HIMSS Media publication.