According to the 2022 Nurse Salary Research Report published by Nurse.com, nurses who identified as Black or African American, American Indian, or Alaska Native reported the lowest levels of satisfaction with their current salary. Those nurses also reported working the longest hours, with Black and African American nurses working the most overtime hours.
The dissatisfaction with pay could be a contributing factor to the number of nurses considering changing jobs or leaving the profession altogether. Nearly half of the nurses polled said they were open to new opportunities, and nearly one-third said they planned to leave nursing for another field. That was a sizable increase from the 18% of respondents who said they planned to leave the profession in the last survey.
All too often, nurses and other health care workers are so focused on helping their patients that they neglect their own self-care needs. Unfortunately, failure to meet one’s mental health needs can affect work quality and the ability to properly care for others.
Finding ways to maintain mental health is a must for nurses and other health care workers in general. Pay inequity and long hours can be frustrating. However, to continue delivering quality care to patients, nurses must take care of themselves as well. Getting enough sleep, processing emotions, and finding ways to disconnect have long been considered keys to mental health.
