Picture a nurse sitting in her car before her shift, mentally sorting which errand will slip today. The prescription. The school form. The appointment she has already moved twice. That pressure does not stay in the parking lot. It walks onto the unit with her.
What the research says
Burnout among nurses has eased from pandemic highs, but it remains common. In the 2024 National Nursing Workforce Study from NCSBN, the share of registered nurses who reported feeling burned out every day or a few times a week fell from 45.2 percent in 2022 to 35.4 percent in 2024. That is progress, and it is still more than one in three.
Intent to leave is also high. NCSBN reports that 39.9 percent of registered nurses said they planned to leave the workforce or retire within five years. Among those planning to leave, stress and burnout were the most common reason other than retirement, followed by workload, understaffing, and pay.
Turnover is expensive. According to the 2026 NSI National Health Care Retention and RN Staffing Report, as summarized by Nurse.org, the average cost of losing one bedside registered nurse is about $60,090.
The support gap outside the unit
Clinical workload deserves the attention it gets. Staffing, acuity, and overtime are real pressures, and they need real solutions.
There is also a quieter pressure that is easy to miss: running a household on a schedule that does not match anyone else’s business hours. Pharmacies close before the shift ends. Service appointments assume someone can wait at home. Grocery runs, packages, and family logistics compete for the same few hours left after a long shift.
Most benefits packages cover health, finances, and time off. Very few touch the everyday tasks that fill a nurse’s limited hours away from work. That is the gap we want to explore.
What practical support could look like
HOP is developing hospitality and practical support for healthcare teams. Depending on the organization, that could mean an on site HOP Desk where staff drop off requests, or a virtual option where requests are completed and errands are delivered home.
We want to be clear about what this is and what it is not. Practical support is not a replacement for safe staffing, fair pay, or good leadership. It has not been proven to change retention or clinical outcomes on its own. It is one thoughtful way to show staff that their lives outside the building are seen.
A better way to start
If your organization is curious, we suggest a small, honest first step: one unit, an agreed service scope, and simple measures such as how easy requests are to make and how reliably they are completed. Learn from real use, then decide together what comes next.