CNOs must be ready to adapt to the generational differences that Gen Z nurses bring to the table.
Nowadays, there are plenty of issues in nursing to keep CNOs busy, but one of the biggest ones is nurse turnover.
As it stands now, the national RN turnover rate sits at about 16.4%. What does that number mean though and what should CNOs do about it?
Press Ganey recently released the Nurse Experience 2025 report, which relies on feedback from over 500,000 RNs, APPs, and other clinical staff across the country. According to Jeff Doucette, CNO at Press Ganey, the report shows a decline in engagement with increasingly higher than expected turnover rates, which points to a gap between nurses and leaders.
"We know that this engagement report and these statistics tend to be the earlier bellwether that there will be problems with quality, safety, and reliability in six to nine months from now if we don't pay attention to what's happening in with the workforce," Doucette said.
In particular, the report stated that 24% of Gen Z RNs left the workforce in 2024. If CNOs want to maintain the sustainability of their workforces, reengaging Gen Z will be a key factor.
Why are Gen Z nurses leaving?
According to Doucette, the reason for this Gen Z exodus from nursing has to do with unmet needs, centering around purpose, support, and alignment with their organizations.
"Gen Z clinical nurses generally have less [of a] feeling of psychological safety and they are experiencing significant cognitive overload and administrative burden, but they are less tolerant of the dysfunction that many of us have just learned to live with in healthcare environments," Doucette said.
Gen Z nurses also tend to want to see immediate solutions to complex problems that previous generations believe take more time to solve. Doucette emphasized that this departure has little to do with a lack of commitment and that the trend doesn't stop with healthcare.
"They're leaving because they're feeling like leadership is failing them in creating an environment [where] they can come to work every day and do their best work," Doucette said. "They simply will not stay in environments where they do not feel like their professional work is being supported, nor if they feel like their wellbeing is not supported."
Recapturing Gen Z's attention
The biggest difference between Gen Z employees and previous generations, anecdotally, is that they work to live, they don't live to work. To help find common ground with Gen Z, Doucette recommended that CNOs focus on two major strategies: communication and flexibility.
"When we as leaders create an environment that meets them where they are, they want a high degree of flexibility where they are in control of their work," Doucette said.
CNOs should consider reevaluating stringent scheduling guidelines to allow for more flexibility. Gen Z nurses also want clear routes to career progression. Doucette explained that rather than telling new nurses that they cannot progress as quickly as they want to, CNOs should direct them towards the pathway that will eventually get them to where they want to be. If there are no clear career pathways, nurses are less likely to want to stay at an organization.
"It's really important in those initial conversations to say, 'here's how your career progression can work at our health system,'" Doucette said. "'We might not be able to have you in a nurse manager job in six months, but we can certainly make sure that you're involved in shared governance and learning leadership skills and being a part of our leadership development program that we have for clinical nurses.'"
For CNOs, the key is to format communication in the manner that Gen Z communicates. Doucette pointed out that many members of Gen Z tend to have shorter attention spans, because they are adjusted to receiving information via TikTok or Instagram Reels.
"Chief nurses and nurse leaders who have TikTok channels and Instagram channels where they're sharing information with their staff in short snippet videos a couple times a week are showing very high engagement scores in terms of communication and connectivity and alignment with senior leadership with Gen Z's and millennials," Doucette said, "versus those that are still publishing a paper newsletter with a paycheck every two weeks."
This is part one of a two-part story. Part two will be published on Monday, August 4.
G Hatfield is the CNO editor for HealthLeaders.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The Nurse Experience 2025 report by Press Ganey stated that 24% of Gen Z RNs left the workforce in 2024.
The Gen Z exodus from nursing has less to do with lack of commitment and more to do with unmet needs, centering around purpose, support, and alignment with their organizations.
Rather than telling new nurses that they cannot progress as quickly in their careers as they want to, CNOs should direct them towards the pathway that will eventually get them to where they want to be.