Fewer than half of nurses working in the senior housing and care sector feel “psychologically safe” in their workspace.

That’s according to a new survey from Kare, a digital labor marketplace for post-acute and senior living operators. The report, released this week in collaboration with the National Association of Health Care Assistants (NAHCA), is the second installment of a three-part “Trauma and Resilience” analysis from Kare.

The findings come from a survey of 1,142 long-term care professionals, who were asked about their personal and workplace well-being. Registered nurses regularly reported differences about workplace wellbeing compared to other frontline staff, citing they felt unsafe, a lack of community and not being able to be their authentic self at work.

According to the latest report, 41% of nurses agreed or strongly agreed they feel psychologically safe in their workplaces, which is 15 percentage points lower than the average of the survey’s other respondents.

By comparison, 59% of certified nursing assistants and 60% of certified medication aides agreed or strongly agreed that they felt psychologically safe at work.

Although more than three-quarters of senior housing and care workers, 77%, said they feel like they can be their authentic selves at work, just half of the nurses who took the survey said the same.

Until Kare undertook the study, it “did not know the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the careforce in senior housing,” according to Katie Rhone, senior vice president of the hero program and employee experience.

A previous survey, released in May, showed that nearly three-quarters of care workers dealt with medium to high levels of toxic stress manifested in part by past traumas.

“Almost half of the careforce feel the effects from the Covid-19 pandemic on their physical and mental health, which layered with two-thirds having intermediate to high levels of toxic stress, is a wake-up call to the true well-being of this workforce,” Rhone told Senior Housing News.

A little more than a quarter of nurses who took the survey, 29%, also did not feel a sense of community in the workplace. Nurses also felt less recognition compared to their peers, with 18% stating they felt unrecognized by management teams compared to an average of 13% for other kinds of senior housing and care workers.

The report also includes suggested actions to help course correct based on respondent feedback, which includes establishing support groups for staff, training programs aimed at promoting a supportive environment, implementing robust recognition and reward programs, offering educational and career development opportunities for staff and organizing team-building activities to foster a sense of community while cutting back on feelings of burnout.

“Given the urgent need to understand more about the careforce in order to retain the senior housing industry, these findings can provide a lens to better understand the personal and daily challenges surrounding mental health of the workforce,” Rhone said.

In 2024, senior living operators are trying to attract nurses and other hard-to-hire workers by highlighting the benefits of working in senior living, particularly with the level of connection and slower pace compared to other healthcare settings, and has seen an increase in referrals for recruitment purposes.