Nurse Experience 2025: What Caritas Reminds Us About Rebuilding Trust, Purpose, and Belonging

In reading Press Ganey ’s Nurse Experience 2025, I was struck by what the data revealed and what it quietly affirms: we are at a moral crossroads in healthcare. The report outlines critical insights into engagement, turnover, safety, and the future of our workforce, yet beneath the metrics, there’s something deeper at play. Nurses are not just asking for more support - they’re asking for more meaning, more voice, and more humanity in the systems they serve.

This is where Caritas-based leadership offers not just a philosophy but a practical, healing framework for change.

Caritas in Practice: From Philosophy to Action

Caritas reminds us that human connection is not ancillary to quality care - it’s central. When we bring loving-kindness, deep listening, and authentic presence into our leadership and workplace cultures, we create conditions where trust can grow, where purpose is restored, and where people stay not because they have to, but because they believe in what they are building together.

The findings from the report validate this:

• Organizational pride is the strongest predictor of retention.
• Gen Z nurses are leaving at alarming rates, not due to lack of strength, but lack of purpose and safety.
• Psychological safety, decompression time, and meaningful interprofessional relationships drive both clinical outcomes and staff loyalty.

These are not operational problems alone; they are human ones. And so, our solutions must be human too.

What Can We Do?

Align Caritas with the Pressing Needs of Today’s Workforce into Caritas-informed action steps for nurses, managers, and executive leaders:

💡 1. Organizational pride is the strongest predictor of retention. Caritas lens: Pride grows when work is seen, valued, and rooted in shared purpose. Action: Reconnect nurses to the mission. Share real stories of impact. Celebrate everyday excellence, not just outcomes.

💡 2. Gen Z nurses are leaving at a 24% rate.

Caritas lens: Younger nurses seek meaning, flexibility, and alignment with values—not just stability.

Action: Create spaces for reflection and authentic connection. Invite Gen Z nurses into shared governance early. Ask them what matters and act on it.

💡 3. APPs feel overlooked and disconnected from leadership.

Caritas lens: Inclusion and mutual respect build trust and belonging.

Action: Ensure APPs have voting rights, a seat on councils, and visible roles in decision-making. Don't just acknowledge—include.

💡 4. Poor teamwork increases the risk of turnover by 1.5x.

Caritas lens: Compassionate presence and relational trust fuel collaboration.

Action: Reinforce team rituals—daily huddles, peer check-ins, shared learning moments. Invest in team trust-building, not just task management.

💡 5. Psychological safety is slipping across care teams. Caritas lens: Trust grows when people feel safe to speak the truth without fear. Action: Shift from blame to learning. Use storytelling, leader rounding, and open forums to normalize error reporting and shared accountability.

💡 6. Resilience is built through both activation and decompression.

Caritas lens: We cannot pour from an empty cup. Healing requires rest.

Action: Protect time for recovery. Give nurses control over their schedules and create space for pause, silence, and renewal during the shift.

💡 7. Leadership behaviors shape culture more than any other factor.

Caritas lens: Leadership is about presence, not just policies.

Action: Train leaders in relational leadership. Measure success by connection, responsiveness, and the trust they cultivate - not just KPIs.

A Word to Leadership

Leadership must be more than infrastructure; it must be invitation. An invitation to listen, to respond, and to model the kind of culture we wish to see repeated on every shift, every unit, every interaction.

This is a moment to pivot from transactional management to transformative leadership. Caritas doesn’t ask us to add more to our plates - it asks us to lead with more intention, more truth, and more heart.

Closing Reflection

Nurses today are not just yearning for safer staffing or better benefits. They’re longing for a system that sees them, hears them, and honors the sacredness of their work. Caritas gives us the framework to rebuild not just better engagement scores, but a healthcare culture rooted in trust, dignity, and shared humanity.

Let’s use this report as a mirror and a map and let’s walk forward, together.

How are you putting these findings into action in your organization?

Link to Article: https://info.pressganey.com/e-books-research/nurse-experience-2025