How to Fix Short Staffing in Nursing (2026)

The demand for nurses in the U.S. is increasingly outpacing its available supply. By 2030, this shortage is projected to surpass 250,000 RNs, contributing to the short staffing in nursing that is driving record levels of burnout and staff dissatisfaction. Left unaddressed, these nursing staffing issues can compromise an organization at every level, from the financial burden of rising turnover to the patient safety risks associated with suboptimal clinical coverage.

Tackling this complex healthcare crisis requires a multifaceted, committed approach. In this guide, you’ll find the most current answers to critical questions about inadequate staffing in nursing, including a careful exploration of the causes, consequences, and possible solutions. Equipped with the information you need to fully implement these nursing shortage solutions, you’ll be better prepared to navigate systemwide challenges without jeopardizing the outcomes that set your facility apart.

Impact of Nurse Staffing on Patient Care

Nurse staffing and patient care quality (and safety) are closely connected. Care provided by a short staff (meaning, an inadequate number of nursing personnel) jeopardizes both safety and quality. Research continues to underscore the strong correlation between adequate nursing coverage and positive patient outcomes. Current studies maintain earlier findings regarding the full impact of short staffing in nursing. See the compounding evidence, summarized in the table below:

Reasons for Nursing Staff Shortages (2026)

Facilities that are short of staff are likely experiencing this healthcare crisis due to several drivers, including:

• A rapidly aging U.S. population.
• Higher numbers of nurses leaving the workforce.
• Insufficient education program capacity.

The oldest patients (those who are 85 years or older) often require the highest levels of clinical support. By 2040, that population is expected to grow beyond 13 million people, significantly compounding today’s healthcare demand.

Their requirements (alongside those from the rest of the population) will become increasingly difficult to meet as nursing attrition persists. Baby boomers (born between 1946-1964) make up 25% of the total workforce and are retiring from healthcare every year. Younger nurses are also leaving, with 1 in 4 reporting intentions to exit the profession, largely due to feeling overworked and overburdened by current work conditions.

A seemingly easy solution to this supply and demand issue would be to increase the number of nurses. However, this is not easily accomplished given the nursing faculty shortage, which is the primary reason nursing programs have turned away nearly 66,000 qualified applicants.

Solutions to Short Staffing in Nursing: 5 Nurse-Approved Strategies

Unfortunately, there’s no instantaneous or easy fix for understaffing in nursing homes or acute settings. However, there are many practical, nursing-backed measures that can help strengthen your work environment and improve nurse retention. Use the following five suggestions for how to improve short staffing in nursing to better protect your workforce and boost your patient (and organizational) outcomes.

1. Develop a Resilient, Multimodal Staffing Strategy

One of the most well-known staffing standards is the use of set staffing ratios. In nursing leadership terms, this often relates back to managing adequate hours per patient day (HPPD). Both of these staffing considerations serve to ensure adequate patient care coverage.

To maintain the optimal nurse-to-patient ratio or HPPD coverage, a diverse strategy is essential. Beyond an effective process for hiring full-time staff, consider broadening your current staffing plan with the following solutions:

• Train your staff in the use of multiple nursing care delivery models.
• Adapt your staffing model to align with the availability of personnel.
• Increase the use of remote nursing assistance or telehealth.
• Partner with a staffing agency that provides nurses with the support needed to offset today’s healthcare challenges (like W2 coverage).
• Expand your nursing float pool and add (temporary) coverage for the busiest hours of a shift.
• Develop a talent pipeline throughout your recruiting efforts and keep in touch with promising candidates.

2. Support Clinicians’ Mental Health and Wellness

Nursing professionals are strong, but they are also human. Exposure to trauma, and the emotional toll of caring for those during their worst moments can lead to feelings of stress, and even isolation. To safeguard their health, protect them from burnout, especially when challenged by staffing shortages and workflow disruptions. Some example strategies for supporting your clinicians include:

• Incorporating employee mental health and wellbeing into your set organizational values or mission statement.
• Participating in Schwartz Rounds, and giving your nurses a supportive space to cope with the impacts of their work.
• Offering additional support by encouraging human resources (HR) to meet with your team to review and encourage mental health benefits.
• Backing a nurse-led committee dedicated to promoting mental wellness within your unit (or department).
• Training management and staff on how to identify and help at-risk nurses.
• Nurturing a just culture, so nursing professionals feel safe to speak up about risks and mistakes.

3. Cultivate a Positive Clinical Work Culture

If as many as one in four nurses want to exit the nursing workforce, then the current workplace environment deserves additional scrutiny. The nursing supply and demand discrepancy may not have an easy fix, but many job conditions do have practical solutions that can improve morale. Identifying these changes relies on a positive work culture that facilitates authentic, timely staffing feedback.

Cultivating that positive work culture starts with establishing trust and ensuring that nurses feel safe, appreciated, and set up for success. This is done through continuous demonstrations of caring and, while it takes time (and patience), it is well worth the effort. Pave the way to achieving this foundational work culture by:

• Engaging your staff through daily rounding and safety huddles, where their wellbeing is visibly prioritized alongside that of the patients.
• Providing amenities that benefit nurses and improve the working environment (like a better staff break room).
• Encouraging shared governance so that nursing staff have an equal voice in addressing departmental (or facility) issues.
• Incorporating communication strategies and tools (like ARCC) that encourage an environment where all voices matter.
• Intervening when conflict arises and supporting resolutions that underscore workplace values and a culture of respect.
• Supporting nurse management with the resources to build a positive work environment and pursue better leadership practices.

4. Reinforce How Much Nurses are Appreciated

Consistent recognition is not only good for morale, it’s good for retention, adding an additional 3.5 years to an employee’s tenure. Yet the majority of employees signal that they feel unappreciated for their effort, including about 60% of today’s nurses.

There are many tangible ways to display how much you value your nursing staff. Ideally, nurses would enjoy a range of indicators, from the logistical to the celebratory. No matter how you choose to honor your hard-working team members, genuine appreciation is key. Consider some of these methods for displaying real gratitude:

• Increase nursing compensation or incorporate additional incentives (or bonus pay).
• Expand nurse benefit packages or employee perks (like tuition reimbursement options).
• Participate in nursing week celebrations that meet nursing preferences.
• Recognize excellence and innovation with routine awards and award ceremonies.
• Use social media to spotlight staff members and publicly underscore your appreciation for their effort.
• Offer additional outlets for professional development, such as a facility-sponsored clinical ladder program or continuing education assistance.

5. Ease Nursing Workflows Where Possible

Lightening workloads is one of the most essential solutions to short staffing in nursing. Hiring a nurse coach is one long-term method of improving patient outcomes across a wider range of patients, but there are other, more immediate ways to help staff do their jobs despite ongoing nursing staff shortages.

Consider implementing workflow improvement strategies, such as:

• Developing intersystem partnerships to streamline patient transfers to alternative care sites when nurse staffing ratios are at maximum capacity.
• Diversifying staffing and maximizing the productivity of each role (within their scope) to more evenly spread the workload.
• Taking advantage of technology to automate low-value nursing tasks (like electronic updates to patients on normal lab results, for example).
• Updating equipment to smart options that assist with nursing tasks (such as smart beds that automate patient shifts to avoid pressure injuries).
• Creating community outreach events that encourage alternate pathways to care or educating patients on when (or how) to access care during seasonal healthcare surges.
• Studying the workflow patterns across your facility and redesigning patient rooms, supply closets (and beyond) to improve productivity based on staff traffic patterns and resource positioning.

Need Help Developing a Resilient Staffing Strategy?

Trying to enlist a full schedule of highly qualified nursing professionals and contending with short staffing in nursing is a formidable task. Thankfully, you’re not alone. Find out how your organization can protect your nurses and improve patient outcomes through strategic staffing solutions by partnering with us today.