One in two nurses has left the hospital after ten years of career. Here’s why.
- Nearly one in two nurses have left the hospital after ten years of career.
- Some become liberals, while others retrain.
- The arrival of one or more children and the deterioration of working conditions explain this phenomenon.
Nearly one in two nurses has left the hospital after ten years of career, according to a new study of the DREES.
After ten years of career, 10% of hospital nurses work in private practice
Over the period considered (1989-2019) by public health experts, of the 79% of people who still have a salaried job ten years after their first position as a hospital nurse, 54% still practice this profession in the hospital, 11% are still employed nurses but for another type of employer (for example a nursing home, a public administration or on a temporary basis), 7% have changed profession but remained in the hospital sector (for example in an administrative job) and 7% changed profession and sector.
Ten years after starting as a hospital nurse, 17% of them are self-employed as a nurse or in another profession. Self-employment is combined with paid employment for 4% of them. After ten years, 10% of hospital nurses practice exclusively in private practice and 2% in a mixed capacity.
“These percentages are significantly higher than what we observe in other professions, where self-employment is much rarer: after ten years of career, 3% of salaried employees occupy exclusively self-employment in a other profession and 2% at the same time as salaried employment”, explains DREES.
Why are nurses leaving public hospitals?
How to explain such a phenomenon ? “Becoming a mother leads women who have worked as hospital nurses to reduce their volume of salaried work”, can we read in the report. The birth of the first child thus leads on average to a reduction of 0.14 full-time equivalent jobs (EQTP) in the volume of salaried work five years after the birth and of 0.22 EQTP ten years later.
The deterioration of working conditions is also regularly mentioned in the media. “Physically, morally, on every point, it’s horror. It’s been getting worse for several years, and for several months, it’s been even worse. The emergency rooms and hospital beds are all taken, the corridors and waiting rooms are full”, testifies in CNews a nurse from the Pontoise hospital, in Val d’Oise (95), explaining arriving at work with “the lump in my stomach”.
“We know that there are going to be a lot of people and that we won’t be able to do our work as we would like to do it. It’s a daily challenge,” she adds.
