Connecticut a Top-10 State for Nurses, Analysis Shows

With the annual observance of National Nurses Week just days away and the ongoing pandemic continuing to place stress and strain on frontline workers, a new national survey has ranked Connecticut in the top 10 among the best states for nurses.            

The personal-finance website WalletHub compared the relative attractiveness of the 50 states across 21 key metrics. The data set ranges from monthly average starting salary for nurses to health-care facilities per capita to nursing-job openings per capita. The various metrics were placed in two overarching categories, Opportunity & Competition and Work Environment.  Connecticut ranked 39th in Opportunity & Competition, but 3rd in Work Environment.

The state’s ranking in the various categories included:

·         4th – Percentage of Residents 12+ Who Are Fully Vaccinated

·         12th – Share of Best Nursing Homes

·         15th – Nursing-Job Openings per Capita

·         15th – Health-Care Facilities per Capita

·         16th – Projected Share of Elderly Population by 2030

·         27th – Avg. Number of Work Hours

·         29th – Nurses per Capita

·         30th – Monthly Avg. Starting Salary for Nurses (Adjusted for Cost of Living)

Overall, the top 10 “Best Places to Work as Nurse” were Washington, Maine, New Mexico, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Oregon, Arizona, Montana, Rhode Island and Connecticut.  At the bottom of the list were Tennessee, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Hawaii, Alabama and Oklahoma.

Adequate nurse staffing is a leading element in attracting nurses to the profession, and to preventing attrition, according to Robin Fleming, Assistant Teaching Professor at the University of Washington School of Nursing & Health Studies. “Research shows that more than half of nursing units are understaffed or inadequately staffed, leading to poorer patient outcomes, economic waste, and nurse burnout. These effects of understaffing were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic: The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects that 500,000 experienced nurses are expected to retire before the end of 2022, resulting in a shortage of more than 1 million nurses at a time when demand for nurses is increasing.”