Top Reasons for Healthcare Employee Turnover (And What Your Team Can Do About It)

By: Jenn Brusco | October 2026

Healthcare organizations are all too familiar with talent shortages and the challenges surrounding recruitment and retention. Recent turnover data from Press Ganey’s State of Healthcare Employee Experience 2026, covering 2.6 million workers across 419 health systems, found that turnover in the healthcare industry held steady at 18% between 2024 and 2025. Among the most common reasons for that voluntary turnover:

Personal reasons (19%)
Career development opportunities (or lack thereof) (14%)
Work-life balance (12%)

Becker’s Clinical Leadership echoed this sentiment, noting some of the top reasons for staff nursing shortages as personal reasons, relocation, career advancement, retirement, and education. Burnout is also a commonly cited cause of turnover in healthcare, which is likely attributed to persistent workforce shortages and skills gaps.

To reduce turnover, healthcare teams must address the core causes of voluntary separation from the organization.

1. Personal reasons

Many people leave jobs for personal reasons, and in many cases, this is outside your control. The person could be experiencing a life change like a spouse getting a new job that requires them to move, having difficulty with a manager or worker, or an issue with their salary or workload.

But “personal reasons” can be a vague, catch-all answer that’s convenient for a person who doesn’t want to explain the reason they’re leaving. If many of your departing team members use this excuse in exit interviews, it could be a sign that they don’t feel comfortable expressing their true reason for leaving.

Research suggests that many departing employees do not fully disclose their true reasons for leaving during exit interviews. A 2026 analysis by employee-experience firm AceNgage found a 74% difference between feedback employees shared with internal HR and feedback they later provided to neutral third-party interviewers, indicating that exit interviews may significantly understate their concerns.

2. Career development

Another major factor influencing turnover is career development opportunities. An interesting component of this, however, are the specific demographics where turnover is highest.

Nearly a quarter of Gen Z professionals who quit their job name career development as their primary reason, which is notably the highest primary reason of any generation outside retirement. Gen Z turnover runs 35% against 22% for millennials and 14% for Gen X.

Second on Press Ganey’s list of the top 10 drivers of retention is whether the job makes good use of an employee’s skills and abilities. That translates to people not just wanting to chase titles and advancement, but also work that feels rewarding to them.

Employers report the same. In a May 2026 MGMA poll of 303 medical groups, those with improving turnover credited:

Better onboarding
Better training
Clearer career paths

Employees who get clear communication on expectations when they join the team and what their progress might look like seem to be happier.

3. Work-life balance

The Press Ganey survey found 25% of employees and 40% of clinicians report difficulty disconnecting from work. Scheduling predictability appears again in MGMA’s list of what stabilized practices corrected.

Burnout is a real problem in medical professions. A Stanford Medicine study found that while burnout among healthcare workers has declined since the pandemic, it’s still surprisingly high at 45.2%. A 2026 survey from Dialog Health put the number even higher, at 49.9%, with nurses reporting the highest rates of burnout (56%). Forty-one percent of nurses said they had a “strong intent” to leave their position within two years on account of burnout.

This problem compounds when people leave. The team becomes short-staffed and it starts a vicious cycle. Every vacancy gets absorbed by whoever is left, which makes their work-life balance worse, which produces the next departure.

4. Job satisfaction and engagement

Employees are more likely to leave when the reality of a role doesn't match their expectations or when their work no longer feels meaningful. This can happen during the hiring process if job responsibilities aren't clearly communicated, or later if the role evolves in ways that no longer align with an employee's skills, interests, or career goals.

This is particularly important for younger workers, who often place a high value on meaningful work and opportunities to apply and develop their skills.

Press Ganey's research reflects these themes. Three of the top 10 drivers of retention are directly tied to job satisfaction and engagement:

Whether an employee likes the work
Whether the job makes good use of their skills and abilities
Whether the work they do makes a difference

When a job fails to use an employee's strengths, it can be just as discouraging as having no opportunity for career growth. This challenge may be growing within healthcare. Mercer’s Inside Employees' Minds 2026 report found that only 58% of healthcare employees feel energized at work, suggesting many workers are struggling to stay engaged.

5. Relationships with teams and leaders

The people employees work with every day can have a significant impact on retention. Supportive managers can help employees navigate workload challenges, career growth, and workplace stress, while strong team relationships can foster trust and a greater sense of belonging. Trust in leadership is also a critical factor. A 2025 study published in the Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety found that only 20.2% of healthcare workers reported trusting their organization's leadership "very much," while nearly all respondents (97.7%) said their level of trust in leadership affected them professionally.

Press Ganey's findings highlight this trend, with several of its top retention drivers focused on workplace relationships:

Whether people like the team they work with
Whether their manager cares about their job satisfaction
Whether their manager treats them with respect

While having a less than satisfactory manager might seem like a driving factor for many people leaving, there's only one cohort that really focuses on it: Gen X is the only generation to name their immediate supervisor as a primary reason for leaving, at 12%.

6. Organizational support

Employees don't just evaluate their role when deciding whether to stay with an organization. They also consider broader workplace support conditions such as job stability, working conditions, workload demands, leadership communication, and whether they feel supported by their employer.

These organizational factors can play a meaningful role in turnover decisions. The Science of Staying: 2025 Health Care Workforce Retention Study found that factors related to the organization, including job stability, work conditions, and physical and mental job demands, account for 60% of the influence on healthcare employees' decisions to stay or leave.

Operating a culture steeped in ethical behavior and mutual respect for all might seem like common sense but establishing that culture is easier said than done. It takes having documented policies in place that reflect these values. It also requires clear and consistent communication, with a transparent approach from leadership.

When employees are most likely to leave

The reasons people leave their roles don’t typically change too dramatically. What can change is how long they’re willing to stay in a role in which they are dissatisfied. The Press Ganey survey data showed that employees are most likely to leave during their first two years, with one-third of new hires exiting within a year of starting. By years three to five, turnover falls below the national average and remains relatively stable.

Other healthcare workforce research points to a similar trend. The 2026 NSI National Health Care Retention & RN Staffing Report found that 29.5% of new hospital hires leave within their first year. These findings suggest that turnover risk is highest during the earliest stages of employment, when employees are still evaluating whether the organization meets their expectations.

The key takeaway is simple: retention efforts work best when they're aimed at new employees, starting early in their tenure and maintained throughout their time with the organization. If you wait until an employee encounters a problem or expresses unhappiness, it might be too late to fix.

What your team can do to minimize turnover in the healthcare industry

Although not every reason for an employee’s separation from your organization can be addressed, there are actions your team can take to empower your team members and make their experience a more positive one, including:

Assess your team's existing skills and potential gaps to understand where you’re starting from and what you need to improve.
Adopt a workforce development initiative to support upskilling or reskilling.
Consider a tuition assistance policy for eligible team members to support their career growth.
Openly share new opportunities with existing and potential employees. This may include job roles, training opportunities, or others.

Career growth can be a powerful lever for your employees to feel like they have a real future with your organization. You can embrace that by offering them opportunities to advance within your organization, grow their skills, or help them pay for further education.

Where a workforce development partner fits

Having the right partner for workforce development – one that’s experienced in assisting other organizations in your position – can give your ability to reduce turnover a major boost. For example, U.S. Career Institute and its programs help organizations build meaningful career development pathways for its teams, allowing these teams to upskill, reskill, or generally build a strong and reliable talent pipeline of qualified healthcare professionals. This not only addresses a primary cause of turnover (career development opportunities) but can also support greater retention, improved employee satisfaction and productivity, and elevated quality of care.

It’s also critical to measure how well your workforce development program is performing, and whether it’s effective at aiding employee retention. Having the ability to track your employees’ development and progress is helpful to gauge success. For example, U.S. Career Institute offers its partner organizations custom-built reporting on completion and certification outcomes, which enables them to easily monitor progress and report on positive outcomes.

Identifying the right workforce development partner for you will depend on your organization and circumstances, so make sure to do your research first. It all starts with finding a team that’s open to a simple conversation to explore your needs.

Talk with our partnerships team or review employer solutions and the partner program catalog.