APRN Burnout and Workforce Recovery: What NCSBN’s Latest Research Tells Us

In this contributor piece, Brendan Martin, PhD, Director of Research at the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN), examines what his organization’s 2022 and 2024 National Nursing Workforce Surveys reveal about APRN burnout: where recovery is real, where it has stalled, and which nurses are being left behind as the averages improve.

In the last several years, advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) have seen the acute crisis of the pandemic fade, but for many that recovery has been uneven and the weight of burnout hasn’t simply lifted.

To understand where things stand, the National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN) analyzed data from the 2022 and 2024 National Nursing Workforce Surveys. A comprehensive study from the NCSBN Journal of Nursing Regulation reveals a picture that is both encouraging and concerning: the APRN population grew by 25.2% between 2022 and 2024, and emotional exhaustion levels moderated across most roles. In that same window, the share of APRNs planning to leave the workforce or retire within five years jumped from one in four to one in three.

Workforce growth and attrition pressure are rising together. The question remains: what does recovery look like when the nurses driving it are still running on empty?

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Signs of Recovery, and Where the Stress Has Shifted

Population and Pipeline

The APRN workforce grew substantially between 2022 and 2024: a 25.2% increase driven by new entrants and experienced nurses returning post-pandemic, even as retirements rose 9.3%.

The education pipeline is showing encouraging signs. Recent data from the American Association of Colleges of Nursing confirm master’s degree enrollment increased for the first time since 2021, and Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) enrollment rose for the 21st consecutive year. Certified nurse practitioner (CNP) and certified registered nurse anesthetist (CRNA) enrollment are up, and clinical nurse specialist (CNS) master’s program enrollment grew 3% after a 10.5% decline the year prior.

Growth isn’t uniform. Nurse midwife enrollment declined 1.6%, and postbaccalaureate DNP enrollment for CRNAs, the most common educational pathway, dropped nearly 2%.

Emotional Exhaustion: Progress Is Real, but Incomplete

Data gauging exhaustion show substantial improvement and persistent strain existing side by side. In 2024, roughly half of all APRN respondents reported feeling emotionally drained (52%) or used up (56.6%); burnout was reported by 40.3%, fatigue by 47.1%. Against the 2022 baseline, those numbers represent meaningful progress: CNS respondents saw the largest average drop in emotional exhaustion (10.7%), followed by CNPs (6.3%) and CNMs (4.2%).

The stress hasn’t disappeared. It has shifted demographically. In 2022, the least experienced APRNs carried the highest exhaustion burden. By 2024, that weight had migrated to APRNs with more experience (those with 14 to 29 years of experience), indicating that stability among more experienced APRNs is no longer a given and that the effects of the pandemic experienced early in APRNs’ careers risk becoming widespread.

CRNAs are the clearest outlier and warrant specific attention. They were the only APRN cohort to see a net increase in emotional exhaustion (+2.0%), with notable rises in emotional drainage (+6.1%), burnout (+4.1%) and fatigue (+3.0%). While other roles are recovering, CRNAs are moving in the opposite direction.

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In 2022, 24.7% of APRNs, approximately 104,540 nurses, reported plans to leave the workforce or retire within five years. By 2024, that figure had risen to 35.0%, approximately 172,512 nurses. One in four has become one in three.

The top three reasons for intent to leave were retirement (68.9%), burnout (36.2%) and workload (30.1%). Retirement is the leading driver, but burnout and workload are pushing people toward the exit faster and earlier than planned.

The workforce mobility data from 2022 to 2024 reinforces this: more APRNs changed practice settings (+8.2%), retired (+5.2%) or moved to travel or agency nursing (+1.7%). Workload increases dropped sharply (-17.5%), as did telehealth starts (-16.1%), suggesting some pandemic-era pressure has eased, but the underlying fatigue driving these decisions has not.

What This Means for the Profession, and the Patients It Serves

The data point to a workforce making real progress, but on a fragile trajectory, with specific cohorts falling further behind even as averages improve.

The departure of experienced APRNs represents a loss of clinical depth and role diversity that the education pipeline cannot replace quickly. CNS erosion is a specific concern: 87% of CNSs specialize in adult gerontology, a population with growing care needs. Their continued decline affects patient access, role diversity and the breadth of care options available to some of the most vulnerable patients.

Burnout among more experienced nurses compounds the risk. When exhaustion concentrates in the 14-to-29-years of experience cohort, the profession loses the practitioners best positioned to mentor the next generation, a gap that growth in enrollment alone won’t close.

There are grounds for measured optimism. The education pipeline is strengthening; emotional exhaustion moderated for three of four APRN roles; and for now workforce growth outpaced retirements. But those gains are contingent on conditions that are not guaranteed: workload management, workplace culture and policy support. The data show what progress is possible, and what conditions are required to sustain it.

🤔 If you’re an APRN, has your workload or burnout improved since the pandemic, or has the pressure just changed shape? Tell us your experience in the comments below.

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