Stop Saying There’s a Nursing Shortage

Yet rather than add nurses, many hospitals are paring back, sometimes turning to apps where they can hire nurses as gig workers. Such apps often allow hospitals to avoid paying for benefits for these workers, says Katie Wells, a senior fellow at the AI Now Institute, which has studied gig apps for nursing. “Lean staffing has just become the norm,” Wells says. 

The American Hospital Association argues that the issue is not lean staffing but that instead there are workforce shortages that are projected to continue for more than a decade. 

“The growing complexity and intensity of patient care, along with overly burdensome regulatory requirements and increased administrative demands from corporate insurers, continue to place significant demands on nurses,” the association said in a statement provided to TIME.

Hospitals are also facing increased costs of caring for patients, according to a March 2026 post by Rick Pollack, AHA’s president and CEO. In 2025, he writes, hospital expenses grew 7.5%, more than twice the rate of growth in hospital prices. Hospitals are also caring for patients who are sicker and whose care is more complex than it used to be, he points out.