The nursing career in the future spans more settings, with technology absorbing routine tasks so nurses can spend more time on complex clinical needs. That shift is being driven by a wave of retirements, a workforce that is not growing fast enough to replace them, and the rise of virtual care. Health systems that build flexible, technology-supported staffing models now will have enough experienced nurses to lead care in 2030 and beyond.
Key Takeaways
- More than 1 million registered nurses are projected to retire by 2030, taking decades of clinical judgment out of hospitals unless health systems find ways to keep that expertise accessible.
- The Health Resources and Services Administration projects a national registered nurse shortage through at least 2037, with nonmetro hospitals facing shortages more than three times as severe as those in metro areas.
- Virtual nursing and AI-assisted documentation are moving from pilot projects to standard staffing tools that extend what nurses can do instead of replacing bedside care.
- Nurse turnover now costs the average hospital $5.19 million a year, according to the 2026 NSI National Health Care Retention and RN Staffing Report, which makes retention a long-term strategy instead of a short-term fix.
- Health systems that build flexible, technology-supported career paths for nurses now will be better positioned to staff their units in 2030 than those that wait.
The future of nursing is defined by three trends converging at once: a historic wave of retirements, a pipeline of new nurses that is not expanding fast enough to offset them, and a shift toward care that happens across more settings, supported by technology instead of confined to a single unit.
What is the future of nursing?
Nearly half of the current nursing workforce is over age 50, according to the National Council of State Boards of Nursing, and more than 1 million registered nurses, roughly one-third of the entire workforce, are projected to retire by 2030. That wave also thins out nursing school faculty, which compounds the shortage.
Nursing schools turned away more than 65,000 qualified applicants in 2023
The bottleneck wasn't interest in the profession. It was a shortage of faculty and classroom seats to teach them.
New nurses are not closing the gap fast enough to offset those losses. In 2025, acute care hospitals hired 377,650 registered nurses against 324,090 departures, a net growth of just 2.9%, down sharply from 5.6% growth the year before.
The National Academy of Medicine's 2021 report, The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity, frames this decade as a chance to expand what nursing can do as staffing models evolve, with a specific focus on technology adoption and health equity. Marcia Murphy, Chief Nursing Officer at Vitalchat with 17 years of experience in tele-ICU care, describes the constant in the profession this way: “Nursing is going to continue to be that foundation of patient care.” She expects more of that care to move outside hospital walls entirely: “I think there will be more care at home in the coming years.”
Nursing at its heart will not change. Providing comfort, care, and expert clinical knowledge has always been the focus and will always be the focus. How we practice will change. The tools that we use are evolving rapidly.
Elizabeth Glidewell, MSN, RN, CCRN, CAVRNDirector of Nursing, Clinical Innovation and Implementation, VitalchatHow will AI and virtual care change nursing?
AI and virtual care are changing nursing by absorbing administrative and monitoring work, extending the reach of experienced nurses into more rooms and shifts, and creating new specialties, without replacing the relationship between a nurse and the patient at the bedside. For nurses nearing the end of what their bodies can handle on the floor, virtual roles are becoming a bridge instead of an exit.
Glidewell described nurses who had already given notice, planning to leave the profession, who changed course once a virtual role became available. “Hospitals have had nurses that had already given a stop date. And then when virtual became a possibility for them, they said, I could do this for a couple more years, and people are staying.”
What a physical assessment becomes
Glidewell said the technology can catch details a busy nurse might miss during a 12-hour shift, such as subtle changes in pupil size or facial expression, and can measure and document wounds automatically. “It can take the subjectivity out of the equation,” she said. She expects AI auditing and quality control to become one of the biggest new nursing specialties by 2030, as health systems need clinicians who can verify that AI tools are working correctly.
Staffing is still the precondition
None of this works without adequate staffing behind it. A February 2026 Penn Nursing study of 880 bedside nurses across 10 states, published in JAMA Network Open, found that most nurses did not experience virtual nursing as workload relief.
| What bedside nurses reported | Share of nurses |
|---|---|
| Virtual nursing did not reduce their workload | 57% |
| Considered the improvement in care quality substantial | 11% |
| Bedside nurses surveyed, across 10 states | 880 |
Researchers concluded that virtual nursing programs are unlikely to meaningfully improve workload or care quality without sufficient bedside staffing and clearly defined roles. The American Nurses Association's Principles of Virtual Nursing, published in April 2025, calls defined scope of practice a foundational requirement of any virtual nursing program.
What nursing workforce trends should health systems watch leading up to 2030?
The trends most likely to define 2030 and beyond are hybrid scheduling that blends bedside and virtual shifts, new career paths in informatics and AI oversight, and a widening gap between metro and rural staffing levels. Both Glidewell and Murphy described hybrid rotations as a retention tool as much as a staffing model, because they let experienced nurses stay close to patients while easing the physical demands of a full floor schedule.
We went from paper to Epic. Nobody could take vacation that summer. Now nobody can imagine going back.
Marcia Murphy, MSN, RN, AGACNP-BC, ANP-BC, NE-BC, CCRN, CPHQChief Nursing Officer, VitalchatThe shortage will not be even
The World Health Organization's 2025 State of the World's Nursing report estimates a global shortfall of 4.5 million nurses by 2030. In the U.S., the Health Resources and Services Administration projects the national registered nurse shortage will ease gradually, but the national number hides the geography.
Why does nurse retention matter more than ever before?
Nurse retention matters more heading into 2030 because the workforce leaving the profession is growing faster than the pipeline replacing it, and every departure now carries a steeper financial and clinical cost. The 2026 NSI National Health Care Retention and RN Staffing Report puts the average cost of a single RN departure at $60,090, and the average hospital loses $5.19 million a year to RN turnover. National RN turnover climbed to 17.6% in 2025, reversing the previous year's decline.
You can have the best technology ever, but if the nurses won't use it, it will fail every single time because they have to be bought in.
Marcia Murphy, MSN, RN, AGACNP-BC, ANP-BC, NE-BC, CCRN, CPHQChief Nursing Officer, VitalchatThe research backs her up. Programs that nurses experience as genuine support, with real task ownership, clear roles, and adequate staffing behind them, are the ones that keep nurses in the building. Programs that nurses experience as a cost-cutting workaround are the ones that accelerate the departures they were meant to prevent.
How Vitalchat approaches the nursing workforce of 2030
At Vitalchat, we build for the unified clinical intelligence health systems need to prepare for 2030. We start from one idea: the right presence, in the right room, at the right moment. We partner with customers on change management, fit the platform to existing workflows, and return hours to the bedside, all from one foundation built around the realities of care delivery.
Vitalchat is software-led and hardware-flexible, with continuous analysis of real-time audio and video, plus a connected layer of clinical insight that grows with you. Our platform is built to work with the devices and systems hospitals already have, so IT teams are not forced into a disruptive, all-at-once rollout to get started. We meet today's needs and grow to meet tomorrow's, because the technology only works when the people using it embrace it.
What that means for retention
Experienced nurses can move into virtual roles without waiting for a yearslong infrastructure project, and health systems can extend the careers of the nurses closest to retirement instead of losing them all at once. We treat virtual nursing as an extension of bedside care, giving nurses one place to work from as they move between units, shifts, and roles.
Ready to see what this looks like for your health system? Schedule a demo with our team.
FAQ
What is the future of nursing?
The future of nursing centers on three trends: a historic wave of retirements, a new nurse pipeline that is not growing fast enough to offset them, and a shift toward care delivered across more settings and supported by technology. Nursing's core work, providing comfort, clinical judgment, and expert care, stays the same. How and where that work happens is what is changing.
How will AI and virtual care change nursing?
AI and virtual care will change nursing by taking over administrative and monitoring tasks, extending experienced nurses' reach across more rooms and shifts, and creating new roles such as AI quality auditing. Research shows these tools only reduce workload when paired with adequate staffing and clearly defined scope of practice.
What will nursing look like in 2030?
By 2030, nursing will likely include more hybrid roles that blend bedside and virtual shifts, more care delivered at home, and new career paths in informatics and technology oversight. The Health Resources and Services Administration expects the national RN shortage to persist through at least 2037, with rural areas facing the steepest gaps.
What is nurse retention, and why does it matter for 2030?
Nurse retention is a health system's ability to keep experienced nurses on staff instead of losing them to burnout or early retirement. It matters more heading into 2030 because turnover now costs the average hospital $5.19 million a year, and the workforce leaving the profession is growing faster than the pipeline replacing it.
How can hospitals prepare for the nursing workforce of 2030?
Hospitals can prepare by building flexible staffing models that blend bedside and virtual roles, giving virtual nurses real ownership over tasks instead of observation-only duties, and choosing technology that works with their existing infrastructure instead of requiring a costly overhaul.
Sources
- National Council of State Boards of Nursing (NCSBN), nursing workforce demographic data.
- Health Resources and Services Administration, National Center for Health Workforce Analysis, "Nurse Workforce Projections, 2023-2038," December 2025.
- American Association of Nurse Leaders (AONL), "HRSA Predicts Nursing Shortage Through 2037."
- NSI Nursing Solutions, "2026 NSI National Health Care Retention and RN Staffing Report."
- American Nurses Association, "Principles of Virtual Nursing," April 23, 2025.
- Muir, K.J., et al., "Virtual Nursing for the Care of Hospitalized Patients," JAMA Network Open, 2025.
- University of Pennsylvania Leonard Davis Institute (Penn LDI), "Virtual Nursing Gets Mixed Marks as Fix for Hospital Staffing Crisis," February 2026.
- Cross Country Healthcare and Florida Atlantic University, "Beyond the Bedside: The State of Nursing in 2025."
- National Academy of Medicine, "The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity," 2021.
- World Health Organization, "State of the World's Nursing 2025," May 2025.
- Interviews conducted by Vitalchat with Elizabeth Glidewell, RN, and Marcia Murphy, Chief Nursing Officer, July 2026.
