Stability and exit intent live together. A unit can be fully staffed on paper this month and still be full of nurses who have already decided how this ends.
That's the shape of NCSBN's latest update. Reviewing the 2024 National Nursing Workforce Study, it reports better stability, gains in diversity and education, and salary increases, next to short staffing, high workloads, and a large share of nurses naming a five-year exit.
"More stable" does not mean "problem solved"
Two in five, on both licenses. Intent to leave is a different measure from a completed exit. What it measures is the scale of stated plans, which is exactly the thing a national study can see and a hiring manager can't.
Steadier, and still planning to go
Reported intent to leave the workforce within five years.
Intent to leave is not a completed exit. It measures the scale of stated plans, which is why it is worth asking a unit how it tracks vacancies and turnover rather than asking a manager to defend a national number.
Stability is a system-level pattern. It says nothing about whether one unit has manageable assignments, whether experienced nurses stay past year two, or whether your orientation survives a bad staffing week.
Turn it into questions a manager can answer
The point is to find out whether this workplace has systems for the pressures the study documents. The manager doesn't have to defend a national statistic.
Vacancy and turnover.
How does the unit track them, and what were the numbers last quarter?
Hours past the schedule.
How often do nurses stay late, and is it counted anywhere?
When acuity rises.
What happens mid-shift when staffing drops or the census climbs?
Preceptor supply.
How many are available, and is orientation protected from routine staffing needs?
Moving without leaving.
What paths exist to change schedule, unit, or specialty inside the organization?
Who sets staffing.
Do frontline nurses sit on the committee that writes the plan?
Check the date before you quote the study
NCSBN is collecting responses for the 2026 National Nursing Workforce Study between April and September 2026. Anything currently promoted as "the 2026 study" isn't final 2026 results. Everything here comes from the 2024 study, as summarized in the 2026 InFocus update.
See what's open near you, by state and specialty.
Notes
- Stability, diversity, education and salary findings, and intent-to-leave shares for RNs and LPN/LVNs: NCSBN InFocus 2026, Volume 2, reviewing the 2024 National Nursing Workforce Study; checked 30 June 2026.
- The April to September 2026 collection window for the next study: the same update.
