Why Investing in Nurse Wellbeing Might Be Healthcare’s Most Profitable Move Yet

This is a guest post by Ajay K. Gupta, CISSP, MBA of HSR.health

The alarm has been sounding for years, and now the siren is blaring – hospital care has reached a breaking point. From overflowing emergency rooms to delayed lifesaving procedures, the consequences of an overstressed system are more than theoretical. Across the country, access to many service lines is shrinking, and entire hospitals, including Crozer Chester Medical Center and Taylor Hospital in the Delaware County suburbs of Philadelphia, PA, have closed their doors permanently. Yet patient demand continues to grow. 

Healthcare’s Paradox: High Costs, Untapped Solutions 

Despite bold clinical innovations, ranging from robotic surgeries, gene therapies, advanced stents, medical devices, and new pharmaceuticals, designed to improve outcomes, healthcare costs only rise. We rarely pursue non-clinical strategies that both improve quality and reduce expense. We can no longer afford this omission. 

Learning from our Peers 

What’s more, we seldom look beyond healthcare for ideas. Other industries may not be in the care delivery business, but that doesn’t mean their strategies are irrelevant. We can learn from and adapt their practices to achieve success in our efforts. For instance, tech, retail, finance,  and other industries know that employee engagement drives performance. Companies that consistently land on Fortune’s 100 Best Places to Work have outperformed the S&P 500 by  3.5× over 27 years.

The lesson: taking care of your people isn’t only altruism—it’s strategy. 

Yet healthcare too often overlooks its own caregivers.  

Nurse Wellbeing as an Operational Imperative

Nursing is a profession grounded in doing good for others – an act that should be intrinsically rewarding. And yet, according to the American Nursing Association, 62% of nurses report burnout. If helping others is hardwired to make us feel better, why aren’t our nurses thriving? 

When more nurses report feeling exhausted than well-rested, one can only point to systemic issues: broken workflows, unrealistic regulatory burden, and high turnover, just to name a few.  These issues are fixable. But first, we have to acknowledge that nurse wellbeing is an operational issue, not just a moral one. 

How Nurse Wellness Pays for Itself 

One question that is often asked: Can nurse wellness pay for itself?

The average cost to replace one bedside nurse is $56,300, and with an 18.4% average annual turnover across the U.S., according to Becker’s Hospital Review, implies that a hospital with  1000 full-time employed nurses may spend over $10M annually on replacement costs. Highly engaged nurses experience as much as 40% lower turnover^, meaning a potential cost savings to hospitals of over $4M before considering gains from improved patient satisfaction scores and outcomes, as well as the avoided penalties from lower readmission and fall rates. Suddenly, a wellness room doesn’t feel like a luxury but more like a smart space and capital allocation. 

Reimagining Wellbeing 

Last week, at the Power Up Nursing Think Tank in Lake Nona, Florida, nursing and healthcare leaders reimagined wellness not as a perk, but as a platform.  We explored how a Business Case for Nurse Wellbeing can provide hospitals with a comprehensive baseline analysis that connects nurse wellness programs directly to operational and quality outcomes.

This includes: 

• A custom Community Health Risk Atlas of the hospital’s catchment area, overlaying  social, environmental, and clinical stressors 

• Linking wellness metrics to patient outcomes like falls, errors, infections, and  readmissions 

• A clear cost estimate of the status quo, alongside projected gains from strategic  investment in care team wellness

These insights offer a concrete starting point for C-suite leaders to align people-first practices with performance metrics and capture the untapped ROI hiding in plain sight. 

The next medical breakthrough may come from a lab. But turning that innovation into better outcomes depends on a resilient, engaged, and supported nursing workforce. The payoff from such investments is real: better care, stronger financials, and healthier communities. Because when nurses thrive, patients, hospitals, and all of us win. 

*McNeill, Grace; Nurse Engagement Strategies: 5 Tac8cs That Retain Top Talent, March 4, 2025. 

🤔 Nurses, share your thoughts in the discussion forum below.