Healthcare Staffing Demand Statistics 2026: RN Turnover, Hospital Turnover, and the Cost Behind Both

What the Most Recent Turnover Data Shows

A figure attributed to the NSI National Health Care Retention and RN Staffing Report, as summarized by Staff Relief Inc., puts national RN turnover at 16.4%, a 2.0 percentage point decrease year over year, with hospital-wide turnover running higher at 18.3%. Both figures describe a workforce still churning at a meaningful clip, even as the RN-specific rate eases slightly.

A modest year-over-year improvement in one figure does not mean the underlying pressure on hospital staffing has resolved, it means the pressure eased somewhat from an even higher starting point.

Why This Data Comes With a Caveat Worth Repeating

These are attributed, secondary-sourced figures, not a direct read of NSI’s own published report. NSI’s primary report is distributed as a PDF that could not be directly rendered in the research behind this page, so every number here traces through a third party’s summary rather than NSI’s own tables. Separate secondary citations of the same underlying report cycle also carry inconsistent report-year labeling, some describing a “2025” edition and others a “2026” edition of what appears to be the same report.

Treat every figure on this page as directionally credible rather than fully audited, and confirm directly against NSI’s own published report, at nsinursingsolutions.com, before relying on any single number here as final.

What Turnover Costs a Hospital

A figure attributed to the same NSI report cycle, as summarized by Kahuna Workforce, states every percentage point of RN turnover costs the average hospital $295,000 per year. The same source cites an illustrative example: replacing 20 travel nurses with employed staff saves $1.32 million.

Whatever the exact precision of the underlying figures, the direction is unambiguous: turnover is not a soft, qualitative problem for a hospital, it carries a real, attributed dollar cost significant enough to justify ongoing staffing spend to manage it.

Why a Small Segment Carries Outsized Staffing Demand

Health care represents just 8% of the staffing industry’s overall occupational distribution nationally, the smallest of the five categories ASA tracks, well behind industrial at 36% and office-clerical and administrative at 24%. On raw placement volume alone, healthcare looks like a modest slice of the industry.

The attributed turnover-cost figures above explain why that small slice still commands serious staffing attention: a segment where every percentage point of turnover carries a $295,000-per-hospital price tag generates urgent, recurring demand for staffing help, regardless of its overall share of total placements.

What This Means for a Firm Pitching Into Healthcare

A healthcare staffing pitch built purely around fill speed misses the more compelling number available: the attributed cost of turnover itself. Framing a conversation around cost avoidance, what unfilled or poorly filled roles are costing a hospital in turnover terms, gives a hiring manager a concrete number to react to, beyond a general appeal to credentialing rigor or fast fulfillment.

That framing works alongside, not instead of, the credentialing-speed positioning healthcare staffing pitches already lean on, adding a cost dimension most pitches in this segment do not currently make explicit.

The Numbers

Sources

The external data in this article draws on the sources below. Figures described in the text as estimates or industry triangulations are directional and are not attributed to a single dataset.

• Staff Relief Inc., summarizing the 2025 NSI National Health Care Retention and RN Staffing Report
• Kahuna Workforce, summarizing the NSI report
• American Staffing Association, staffing industry statistics

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