Dave Pearson

Perception: Unprecedented workplace strains caused U.S. nurses to quit in droves during the COVID-19 crisis. Reality: Nurses had been complaining about poor working conditions for years when COVID descended. In fact, many or most who left their jobs in the early 2020s—whether for other nursing jobs or entirely new work—were thinking about doing so prior to the pandemic. And yet the proportion of nurses who left their primary jobs nearly doubled in 2022 (24%) vs. 2018 (13%).

Last month saw the release of research showing a nontrivial number of physicians quit the job soon after completing residency training. Now comes a separate study suggesting the reasons for the phenomenon are often deep, diffuse and knotty—and thus difficult to address in a strictly programmatic way. The authors arrived at their observations after analyzing 56 relevant studies. The Journal of General Internal Medicine published their work June 8.

Going by four markers of health risk, four neighboring U.S. states are the best places to raise children with high chances of living long, healthy lives. The markers of trouble are low birth weight, lack of health insurance, chronic obesity and pediatric death. The states excelling at avoiding those risks are, in order from No. 1 to No. 4, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Vermont and Connecticut. Nos. 5 through 10 are Minnesota, Oregon, New Jersey, New York, California and Washington.