Nurses Are in High Demand—but They’re Quitting in Droves

The Wall Street Journal ^ | Oct. 19, 2026 9:00 pm ET | Te-Ping Chen

[E. Pluribus Unum]

The field can command six-figure salaries, but understaffing and persistent violence are pushing nurses off the front lines

Paige Campbell became a nurse during the pandemic, wanting to make a difference. She landed a job after college working in the emergency department at a Fort Walton Beach, Fla., hospital.

Since then, she’s been kicked, spat on and shoved to the ground. Last year, after an emergency patient strangled her, she left for a role remotely monitoring patients. Front-line nurses are in high demand, but she needed a break. 

“All I could think was, ‘I can’t breathe, I’m going to die here, and who’s going to tell my mom and dad?’” Campbell, 33, said. The incident unfolded after an ER patient she’d offered a blanket to became aggressive. 

America’s nurses are more educated than ever and can command six-figure salaries. Most have their bachelor’s degree. Their income has boomed since the pandemic to a median $97,550 a year, and their hands-on work isn’t easily automated away. Nursing schools have seen their ranks swell, minting thousands of new graduates every year.

They’re also leaving the bedside in droves. Burnout and complaints about understaffing, verbal abuse and workplace violence are pushing many nurses off the front lines and into other careers where their skills are in high demand. 

“There is no shortage of nurses in this country,” said Jeff Doucette, chief nursing officer at healthcare analytics firm Press Ganey. “There’s a shortage of nurses that want to work in the current environment.”

Fifteen years ago, bedside registered nurses had an 11% turnover rate, according to data from NSI Nursing Solutions, a nurse-placement firm. The percentage of...

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TOPICS: Health/Medicine
KEYWORDS: bluecityblues

[House Atreides]

It can be a tough job with substantial burn out risk.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Nurse Jackie.

[roving]

Nurses aides go through this every day. The difference is they do it for way less money.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

The further away you can stay from cops, lawyers, doctors and nurses, the happier you will be.

[Jonty30]

Now we know why Nurse Ratched lobotomized McMurphy

[Jonty30]

Now we know why Nurse Ratched lobotomized McMurphy

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Juicy Fruit.

[antceecee]

Amen!

[stanne]

‘Nursing Shortage’

Is a headline from at least 1970 if not perpetual

They don’t fix it. $95 k. They’re talking about NYC and they mean that’s top dollar. It doesn’t go much further than that. In NYC a terminal $95 k is not a life. Rotating shifts. There’s no social life no activities. It’s weekends. Christmas. Night shift

Now with drugs that make people violent

People in this country that hate the country.

Hospitals say they have a shortage of nurses. They don’t fix it. In NYC nurses have to put up with nursing aides that are SEIU union. If they do their jumbo, nice. But they’re powerful don’t have to

And where is security? A nurse in a city er can’t expect security

It’s all dumb.

[Salvavida]

Start recruiting more MEN.

Get with DoW and create a track for Army medics and Navy Corpsmen to become nurses. Then when people get out of hand, they get a man who can put them down.

[alexander_busek]

“All I could think was, ‘I can’t breathe, I’m going to die here, and who’s going to tell my mom and dad?’” Campbell, 33, said.

And more importantly: Who's going to tell her husband and children?

Oh, wait... That's right! Being a "strong and independent" career woman is more important! So let me change my tune to fit the prevailing narrative:

"You go, girl!"

Regards,

[Jeff Chandler]

How do you know if a woman is a nurse? She’ll tell you.

[alexander_busek]

Start recruiting more MEN. [...] Then when people get out of hand, they get a man who can put them down.

So, do the men get a premium for being required to physically intercede when the going gets rough and a violent M13 gangbanger or a strung-out fentanyl addict or a surly illegal alien gets "rowdy?"

Because that would be RAY-ciss sexist!

Regards,

[alexander_busek]

Nurses Are in High Demand—but They’re Quitting in Droves

Come "Universal Healthcare," these workers will have to be chained to their workplaces!

Directive 10-289, you know!

Point One. All workers, wage earners and employees of any kind whatsoever shall henceforth be attached to their jobs and shall not leave nor be dismissed nor change employment, under penalty of a term in jail.

Because everyone has a right to the fruits of their labor, dontcha know?!

Regards,

[alexander_busek]

If they do their jumbo, nice.

But what if they don't do their jumbo? What then?!

Regards,

[enumerated]

“So, do the men get a premium for being required to physically intercede when the going gets rough and a violent M13 gangbanger or a strung-out fentanyl addict or a surly illegal alien gets “rowdy?””

Damn right. And come up with a fitting rank to call them. Nobody thinks of a man when they hear “nurse”.

[vivenne]

So true. Just don’t get involved.

[vivenne]

So true. Just don’t get involved.

[ThunderStruck94]

“Nurses aides go through this every day. The difference is they do it for way less money.”

Great point and I will remember that. I volunteer for Hospice and I was a Navy Jet Pilot for 27 years and I can’t help but cry when I hold the hand of a little old lady that has no family that will show up for her when she dies. I feel for the nurses that go through this constantly.