63% of U.S. nurses experience work overload
WASHINGTON, UNITED STATES — Sixty-three percent of American nurses are assigned to care for too many patients at a time, according to Incredible Health’s 2024 U.S. Nursing Report.
Specifically, 23% of 3,300 registered nurses surveyed claim they’ve been asked to accomplish tasks outside of their job description.
Amid new developments in artificial intelligence to reduce healthcare worker burden, the survey reported that only 11% of the nurses surveyed use AI during the patient intake process and care summary creation.
More than half, or 64%, of the nurses believe that AI will negatively impact nursing in general. Still, several hospitals have harnessed call centers equipped with AI to aid in day-to-day operations.
These include facilitating the patient journey from admission, health delivery, discharge, and follow-up care. The platform can resolve common queries while an agent intervenes when necessary. Others have tapped the services of virtual nurses to fill in workforce gaps.
The survey also revealed that 64% of nurses feel that they are not properly compensated for their work. Amid workload and compensation challenges, nearly 4 in 5 American nurses intend to stay in the medical field until retirement.
“The U.S. population is aging and that is putting more and more strain on the healthcare system,” Iman Abuzeid, M.D, cofounder and CEO of Incredible Health, told Fierce Healthcare. “We have not done a great job of increasing the number of healthcare workers to meet that growing demand.”
A staggering 88% of nurses surveyed report that staffing shortages are negatively affecting patient care. This is a significant increase from last year’s findings, where 73% identified inadequate staffing as the top concern in the healthcare industry.
The World Health Organization projects a worldwide shortage of nine million nurses and midwives worldwide by 2030.
