What single change do you think would make the biggest difference in keeping bedside nurses on staff at hospitals?

Higher pay and better benefits (12%) – "With the ever-growing responsibilities and even more work on their plates, it seems like nurses should be paid higher than they currently are."

More nurses on staff to ease in-shift responsibilities (55%) – "As a nurse myself, I know what’s makes the most difference is having a supportive team and supportive administration and second is having safe patient to staff ratios. When that ratio is unbalanced it causes stress on the whole team and the patients suffer as well. When this is a consistent pattern, nurses burnout quickly due to difficult conditions, as well as a lack of feeling seen and supported by their leaders."

• "I work with nurses. Patient ratios determine the level of attention and fatigue these skilled and compassionate individuals must endure. It’s a safety issue for everyone involved."

"Because I have family members that are in nursing. This is what’s happening. And ER with not enough staff and not enough beds especially since COVID. So the big hospital system sets up chairs and beds in the hall to double their space. At the same time the big hospital system is building a huge administrative building, changed its name, spent millions on marketing the new name and changing all the things that had to be named. The ongoing problem is priority number one of hospital systems is making money. Not patient care. Not helping staff succeed. And everyone knows it. But who will change it?"

• "I am a physician with many close nursing colleagues and several family members who are nurses. They feel they are adequately compensated given recent gains in the field, but their top complaint now is staffing shortages."

"My mother has been a nurse for around 20 years. I've heard her stories and seen the results myself- 12+ hour days in my childhood, and even now that she's off the floor, she can get called in to work at 5 in the morning and stay til 10pm. And you know what the most common complaint she has about the job is? That she doesn't have the support needed. Only one nurse and one tech will be on call at a time. If a lot of emergencies happen, it doesn't matter, because they can only do one patient at a time. My mom deserves better."

• "Even the safest jobs benefit from being adequately staffed. If you are being asked to do too much, the burn out happens faster. Many hands make light work."

Stronger protections against workplace violence (8%) – "One of the biggest reasons nurses are leaving is workplace violence, which is understandable. I think if we took more measures to pretect the healthcare professionals that we need, it would benefit everyone in the long run."

More flexible schedules and shorter shifts (14%) – "High stress jobs need time off to recharge and enjoy life. Many patients are a different person than yesteryear. More mental health issues and drug abuse causes high maintenance and other issues which is hard for nurses to handle every day."

• "You can't really make the job easier but the intensity is difficulty x time, so if you reduce the time spent doing it the intensity will go down. Less stressed nurses probably provide better care too."

Other/unsure (11%) – "Many illnesses stem from chronic stress and traumatic childhood experiences. How many of those patients have been suppressing thier own needs and authenticity? For how long? Over-acheiving, people-pleasing, "hard-working," sacrificing too much, validation seeking, etc. Those characteristics aren't natural and they're not sustainable. They're all attempts to fill a void created by the absence of unconditional love. We dont need more nurses. We need more support and awareness for attachment behaviors between children and thier parents. A life full of unhealthy relationships significantly affects our physical health as we age. We are fools to underestimate this."