With the rampant global nursing shortage and the ever-burgeoning number of nurses experiencing burnout and leaving the profession, healthcare facilities and organizations need to understand how to retain top healthcare talent. Without enough nurses on the floor, it’s hard for healthcare facilities to provide patient-centered care. In fact, it’s safe to say that without an adequate number of skilled nurses caring for patients, organizations will not only face operational and financial challenges, but most importantly, patient safety and satisfaction will be compromised.
According to a 2024 data study published by the University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences, the US needs about 1.2 million new registered nurses (RNs) by 2030 to address the current nurse shortage. However, it’s difficult to reach those numbers when retaining Gen Z nurses in acute care and long-term care settings is proving to be a gargantuan challenge. With one in five Gen Z healthcare professionals considering leaving the profession, attracting and retaining new healthcare professionals is proving more difficult than in previous years.
This article discusses the reasons why Gen Z nurses are leaving the industry and how healthcare organizations can modernize their residency programs to keep new nurses happy at work.
The ROI of Retention: Why Gen Z Leaves
Although there has been a slight uptick when it comes to the number of nurses joining the industry post-pandemic, that number has already started going down. Some alarming stats have emerged from recent studies: since 2022, 138,000 nurses have already left the profession, while 40% are planning to exit the industry in the next five years. If this troubling trend continues, there won’t be enough nurses to help keep patients safe and healthy across the country.
There are many reasons why new grad nurses leave within one year of joining the nursing workforce. In a 2020 study, researchers found that the reasons for turnover among young nurses involved a negative work environment, the nursing shortage, and unmet individual expectations.
The first reason, a negative work environment, included reasons such as a lack of professional solidarity, a lack of support from higher-ups, inadequacy of the preceptorship process, and horizontal violence. This highlights just how important support and guidance from managers are for new nurses.
Burnout, which negatively impacts nurses’ quality of life and productivity, also heavily affects younger nurses. A Joyce University survey involving 1,000 RNs in the US found that 28% of Gen Z nurses feel burned out every day at work, and a whopping 74% feel emotionally exhausted multiple times per week.
Modernizing the Curriculum: Beyond Clinical Skills
To keep Gen Z nurses happy in the workplace, it’s essential to modernize processes, policies, and systems to prioritize the values and virtues that resonate with younger healthcare professionals, such as open communication, transparency, and shared decision-making.
Nurse residency programs can help new nurses transition better into the workforce by enhancing nursing skills and building a great support system, resulting in more confident, skilled, and less stressed nurses delivering patient-centric service. A 2025 study found that new nurses favored nurse residency programs and helped them gain clinical competencies as well as soft skills, and obtain much-needed mentorship at a crucial point in their careers.
The following are important elements that your organization’s nurse residency curriculum for Gen Z nurses must have:
It must prepare new nurses for high-stress situations
Via education and training sessions, new nurses will become more familiar with the important everyday things that nurses are expected to do on the floor, such as understanding what needs to be documented for admission, shift, and discharge.
New nurses can also learn how to handle challenging situations that would require quick-thinking and technical know-how by shadowing more experienced nurses on the floor and participating in mock codes. Learning how to perform practical nursing tasks, such as handling a chest tube, performing wound care, or learning how to respond to heart attacks. Being knowledgeable of what to do in such cases can help boost their skills and confidence, minimizing stress and anxiety.
It must foster genuine connections
Aside from providing technical training, the nurse residency program can also provide avenues for meaningful and genuine connections. Creating time for one-on-one or group check-ins with experienced new nurses can give them the space to seek advice and guidance on specific tasks they find challenging, share their struggles, and develop connections with fellow nurses.
It must integrate wellness and mental health strategies
Modern residency programs must incorporate mental health and wellness classes for new nurses, providing nurses with the resources to navigate work-related stress and emotional fatigue. Healthcare organizations will also benefit from providing mental health services to employees, giving new nurses access to adequate and confidential mental health support whenever they need it.
