Healthcare Hiring Faces a New Challenge as Workers Consider Changing Jobs

Nearly Six in 10 Healthcare Workers May Explore New Roles

The survey found that 59% of healthcare workers expect to take some form of job-search action during the next year.

This does not necessarily mean that all of these workers intend to leave their current employers.

Exploring another position, participating in an interview and actually changing jobs are different stages of job mobility.

Nevertheless, the figure indicates that a substantial proportion of the healthcare workforce is open to considering alternative employment opportunities.

For healthcare employers, this creates an additional workforce-planning challenge.

An organization may successfully recruit several new employees while simultaneously losing experienced workers to other employers.

Gen Z Shows the Highest Job-Mobility Intent

The trend is particularly pronounced among younger healthcare professionals.

Approximately 70% of Gen Z healthcare workers said they expect to explore a new role during the next year.

At first glance, this may appear inconsistent with another finding from the survey.

Approximately 65% of Gen Z respondents said they ultimately expect to stay with one employer for five years or more, while 95% said job stability and long-term security are important to them.

These findings suggest that job mobility does not necessarily mean younger workers are opposed to long-term employment.

Instead, workers may be willing to consider changing employers when they believe another position offers stronger opportunities for career development, education, compensation or professional growth.

Career Development Is an Important Retention Factor

Career advancement appears to be one of the key factors behind employees' willingness to consider other opportunities.

Nearly half of healthcare employers surveyed identified a lack of career advancement, professional development or education opportunities as a significant reason employees leave.

At the same time, only 26% of healthcare workers said they have a great deal of trust that their employer will support their long-term career growth.

This gap between employee expectations and confidence in employer support can create a retention challenge.

Healthcare professionals may remain interested in long-term employment but still look elsewhere when they do not see a clear pathway for advancing their careers.

Long-Term Employment Requires More Than Job Security

The survey's findings suggest that job stability alone may not be sufficient to retain healthcare workers.

Employees can value security while also expecting opportunities to develop professionally.

Career pathways can include:

• Advanced clinical responsibilities
• Specialty training and fellowship support
• Leadership opportunities and clinical directorships
• Continuing medical education (CME) stipends
• Professional certifications
• Internal promotions and cross-specialty rotations
• Tuition assistance and student loan repayment
• Mentorship programs pairing junior and senior staff

For healthcare organizations, creating these opportunities can become part of a broader retention strategy.

Burnout and Emotional Fatigue Remain Major Concerns

Working conditions are another important part of the retention challenge.

The survey found that 51% of employers identified burnout and emotional fatigue as reasons employees leave.

This represents a significant increase from the previous year's survey.

Healthcare professionals frequently work in demanding environments involving direct patient care, long shifts, staffing pressures and emotionally difficult situations.

When these pressures continue over extended periods, employees may begin considering other employers or transitioning into flexible Telehealth / Remote / Virtual Jobs, where virtual triage, remote monitoring, and telemedicine consultations offer more manageable workloads and enhanced work-life balance.

Retention and Recruitment Are Closely Connected

The latest findings demonstrate why recruitment and retention cannot always be treated as separate workforce functions.

Suppose a hospital has 100 open positions and successfully hires 20 new employees.

If experienced workers simultaneously leave the organization, the total staffing shortage may remain largely unchanged.

This is why retention has become increasingly important to healthcare workforce planning.

Keeping experienced employees can reduce vacancies, preserve institutional knowledge and reduce the time and expense associated with recruiting and onboarding replacements.

In acute-care settings where turnover creates sudden floor shortages, hospital networks frequently rely on experienced Registered Nurses (RN) / Travel Nursing to stabilize patient-to-nurse staffing ratios while long-term permanent recruitment and retention initiatives take effect.

Experienced Employees Are Particularly Valuable

Experienced healthcare workers bring more than years of employment.

They often have knowledge of organizational processes, patient populations, clinical workflows and specialized procedures.

Replacing an experienced employee can require months of recruiting, credentialing, onboarding and training.

The loss can therefore affect both staffing levels and operational continuity.

For healthcare employers, retaining experienced workers can be particularly important in specialized clinical areas where qualified candidates are already difficult to find.

Physician Recruitment Remains Difficult

The broader retention challenge is occurring alongside persistent difficulties recruiting physicians.

A separate report released September 16 by the Association for Advancing Physician and Provider Recruitment (AAPPR) provides additional evidence of continued pressure on healthcare recruitment teams.

AAPPR's 2026 Physician and Provider Recruitment Benchmarking Report analyzed more than 10,000 physician and provider searches conducted by organizations representing more than 21,000 healthcare locations.

The scale of the data provides a broad view of the challenges healthcare organizations face when recruiting qualified Physicians / MD-DO and advanced practice clinicians across both metropolitan and regional facilities.

Physician Searches Take Longer to Complete

According to the AAPPR report, the median time to fill a physician position was 119 days.

For advanced practice provider searches, the median time to fill was 65 days.

However, the time between posting a position and the actual start date can be considerably longer.

The typical physician began working approximately 229 days after the position was posted.

The difference reflects the additional processes involved in physician recruitment.

A healthcare organization may identify a candidate relatively quickly, but the physician may still need to complete credentialing, licensing, privileging and onboarding before beginning clinical work.

Credentialing Adds Time to Physician Hiring

Physician recruitment therefore involves more than finding and accepting a candidate.

Healthcare organizations must often verify education and training, professional licenses, certifications, references and other credentials.

Hospitals may also need to complete medical staff privileging procedures before a physician can begin providing specific services.

These processes can significantly extend the period between the initial job posting and the employee's first day of work.

As a result, healthcare organizations need to begin physician recruitment well before an immediate staffing need becomes critical.

Half of Physician Searches Remained Open

The AAPPR report also highlights the continuing difficulty of filling physician positions.

At the end of 2025, approximately 50% of physician searches remained open.

An open search does not necessarily mean that a position has no candidates. It indicates that the recruitment process had not been completed.

Long-running searches can place additional pressure on existing staff.

When a position remains vacant, current physicians and other healthcare professionals may need to absorb additional patient volume, administrative responsibilities or call coverage.

This can contribute to further workforce pressure.

Advanced Practice Providers Also Face Recruitment Demand

AAPPR's data also covers advanced practice providers.

The median time to fill APP positions was 65 days, substantially shorter than the 119-day median for physician positions.

However, APP recruitment remains an important part of healthcare workforce planning.

Licensed Nurse Practitioners (NP) and physician assistants are increasingly used in hospitals, outpatient practices and specialty services to expand access to care and support physicians.

Demand for experienced APPs can therefore remain strong even when overall hiring growth begins to moderate.

Compensation Is Only One Part of Retention

Competitive compensation remains an important component of recruitment and retention, but the latest workforce data suggests that healthcare workers consider multiple factors when deciding whether to stay.

These can include:

• Salary and performance bonuses
• Comprehensive health and retirement benefits
• Work schedules and predictable shift patterns
• Staffing levels and manageable patient-to-staff ratios
• Career advancement opportunities
• Education and clinical training support
• Professional autonomy
• Leadership communication and transparency
• Supportive workplace culture
• Work-life balance

An organization that offers competitive pay but limited career development may still face retention challenges.

Similarly, a strong professional development program may not fully offset concerns about workload or scheduling.

Education Can Become a Retention Tool

The survey findings place particular emphasis on education and career development.

Healthcare organizations can use continuing education and training programs as part of their retention strategy.

For example, employers may support workers pursuing additional certifications, advanced degrees or specialized clinical training.

These programs can benefit both employees and employers.

Workers gain opportunities to expand their careers, while organizations can develop internal candidates for positions that are difficult to fill externally.

Internal Career Pathways Can Reduce Turnover

Clear career pathways can also help employees understand how they can progress within an organization.

A nurse may be able to move into a specialty unit, charge position, management role or advanced clinical position.

Other healthcare professionals may transition into education, administration, quality improvement or technology-related healthcare roles.

Providing these pathways can allow employees to pursue professional growth without necessarily leaving the organization.

Healthcare Workforce Mobility Is Not Uniform

The survey results should not be interpreted as meaning that all healthcare workers are preparing to leave their employers.

Intent to explore a new position is different from actual turnover.

Workers may investigate opportunities without accepting another offer.

They may also remain with their current employer if their organization responds to concerns about compensation, scheduling, career development or professional growth.

Therefore, job-search intent provides an indication of workforce sentiment rather than a direct forecast of actual employee departures.

What the Data Means for Healthcare Employers

The combination of the Harris Poll and AAPPR findings highlights several challenges for healthcare organizations.

First, a large share of workers are open to considering new opportunities.

Second, younger healthcare workers appear particularly active in exploring alternative roles.

Third, career development and professional education are important components of retention.

Fourth, burnout and emotional fatigue remain significant concerns.

Finally, physician recruitment can take many months from the initial search to the actual start date.

Together, these factors suggest that healthcare organizations need to plan workforce needs well in advance.

Recruitment Pipelines Are Becoming More Important

Because physician searches can take months to complete, maintaining a consistent recruitment pipeline can be more effective than waiting until a vacancy becomes urgent.

Healthcare organizations can establish relationships with medical schools, residency programs, professional associations and recruitment networks.

Similar approaches can be used for nurses, APPs and allied health professionals.

Developing these pipelines can help organizations identify potential candidates before positions become critically understaffed.

Retention Can Support Workforce Stability

Retention strategies can complement recruitment pipelines.

Healthcare organizations may benefit from monitoring employee engagement, identifying departments with high turnover and understanding why experienced workers leave.

Exit interviews, employee surveys and workforce analytics can provide information about recurring problems.

Organizations can then use this information to develop targeted responses.

The objective is not simply to reduce turnover at all costs but to understand which workforce conditions are contributing to unnecessary employee departures.

Healthcare Hiring Outlook

The latest data show that healthcare employers continue to face strong recruitment needs, but the workforce challenge is becoming more complex.

The 59% of healthcare workers who expect to explore a new role or change jobs within the next year represent a substantial pool of potential job mobility.

At the same time, 70% of Gen Z healthcare workers reporting similar intentions highlights the importance of understanding younger employees' expectations around career development and long-term employment.

The AAPPR data adds another dimension: physician recruitment can take months, with a 119-day median time to fill and approximately 229 days from posting to the physician's start date.

These timelines make proactive recruitment particularly important.

Outlook for the Remainder of 2026

Healthcare hiring is likely to remain active through the remainder of 2026 as employers continue competing for nurses, physicians, advanced practice providers, allied health professionals and specialized clinical workers.

However, recruitment alone may not resolve workforce shortages.

Healthcare organizations increasingly need to address the reasons employees consider leaving in the first place.

Career development, professional education, competitive compensation, manageable workloads and supportive working environments are becoming increasingly important components of workforce strategy.

The latest findings therefore point to a healthcare labor market where recruitment and retention are becoming two sides of the same challenge.

Organizations need to attract new professionals while creating reasons for experienced employees to remain.

For healthcare workers, the current environment continues to provide opportunities to explore new positions, but individual employment decisions will depend on factors such as specialty, experience, location, compensation, working conditions and career goals.