Half of healthcare is ready to walk. Here’s why

Author

Lauren Curtis
September 30, 2025

Hey Health Techies!

If you’ve felt like a scary number of healthcare professionals are teetering on the edge of a career change—you’re not imagining it. A new Harris Poll survey (via Healthcare Dive) just confirmed what many of us are seeing unfold around us: more than half of healthcare workers are thinking about leaving their jobs within the next year.

Now in my opinion the sample size was small, but even still, this is an alarming statistic. Pair this with decreased enrollments in academic and training programs across the country, and we’re in for quite the shortage all around.

Why the itch to move on? Burnout tops the list. But it’s more than stress—only 1 in 5 workers believe their employer is truly invested in their long-term career growth giving way to the type of burnout that comes from feeling stuck. Loyalty is fading too with fewer than one-third feeling “very loyal” to their current employer.

Some key survey findings

  • More than 50% of frontline healthcare workers are seriously considering leaving their current jobs within the next year. Burnout and feeling underappreciated are major reasons.

  • Only 1 in 5 believe their employer is invested in their long-term career growth.

  • Less than one-third of respondents feel “very loyal” to their current employer.

  • Educational support (especially tuition assistance) is a powerful tool: over 60% say they’d be more likely to stay if it were offered.

  • Interest in training around AI is rising—both from employees and employers—in part because it’s seen as a valuable, “future-proofing” skill.

And while all of these reasons are the micro-level drivers: burnout, lack of employer investment, and underappreciation, it shouldn’t be a surprise that zooming out, the picture gets even more concerning.

Worsening shortages and systemic strain

  • The U.S. is projected to face a shortage of up to 86,000 physicians by 2034 (AAMC). Nursing doesn’t look much better (AACN).

Political whiplash & policy instability

  • Healthcare workers live inside a constantly shifting political tug-of-war: reimbursement models, scope-of-practice debates, public health funding, reproductive rights.

Medical misinformation at scale

  • The pandemic supercharged misinformation: from vaccines to nutrition, algorithms often amplify viral falsehoods over clinical fact.

  • Healthcare workers are often put in the position of become unwilling referees in every encounter, spending more energy convincing patients of basic facts than practicing medicine.

Violence & safety concerns

  • The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports healthcare workers experience five times more workplace violence than workers in all other industries combined.

Culture of efficiency > humanity

  • System-wide incentives (productivity benchmarks, corporate consolidation) can prioritize throughput over relationships which feels at odds with why many got into the industry to begin with.

And if it isn’t already clear, these two levels of problems are not separate. Providers can only hope that employers see what is happening at the macro level, and try to create environments that protect staff whenever possible. Instead employees are often caught in crossfires — political, social, cultural, and technological — that no amount of yoga, pizza, or “resilience training” can fix.

Most healthcare workers aren’t planning to leave healthcare all together, just their current role or employer. While survey results would imply that employers would be able to better retain employees with meaningful upskilling programs and training in things like AI and digital innovation, it’s unclear how many employers are actually investing in these types of education programs as a method to attract and retain talent. (Please let me know if you work somewhere that is. I’d love to shout them out!)

But even then, changing jobs may ease the day-to-day frustrations, while the larger, systemic forces remain. My bet: Over the next few years, we’ll continue to see a wave of clinicians (nurses, physicians, allied health) flowing into hybrid/clinical + admin/tech roles or fully non-bedside functions — becoming domain experts, bridge figures between clinical care and tech, change agents, and system leaders as a means to recapture a love of healthcare and be a part of the larger solution. At least, the optimist in me hopes so.

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Until next time,

Lauren

P.S. Doors will be opening again soon for the Hey Health Tech Community, a space for clinicians to learn about innovations in patient care and network with peers. If you want to be the first to know when enrollment begins, join the waitlist. You’ll be hearing from me very soon!