February 14, 2025- After nursing workforce losses exceeded 100,000 in 2021, the number of registered nurses (RN) employed in the profession has slowly begun to recover. Healthcare providers are making significant investments in workforce retention efforts – and nationally, there is a shift towards less reliance on premium pay.
Recent reports show that nurse turnover is returning to near pre-pandemic levels at 18 percent, and 40 percent of hospitals are reporting RN vacancy rates below 7.5 percent. Premier data mirrors these trends. A new Premier analysis reveals that hospital-wide agency use has receded – from a median high of 3.8 percent in 2022 to 1.4 percent for the 12 months ending Sept. 30, 2024.
For nursing services, median agency hours dropped from 3.5 percent to 2 percent, and median agency expense (as a percent of total labor spend) dropped from 8.4 percent to 3.4 percent over the same time period (Table 1). And while RN agency utilization has decreased since its peak, it remains slightly higher through Q3 2024 compared to pre-pandemic levels.