Jay Wiley at Nurse.org reports that if it feels like Nurses are walking out more often than they used to, you are not imagining it. The numbers prove it and the pace is picking up. Nurse.org tracked 107 confirmed Registered Nurse (RN) walkouts from 2017 through 2026. In the three years before the Coronavirus Pandemic, the U.S. saw about four Nurse Strikes a year. In 2025, there were 19. And by the middle of 2026, there had already been 16. Two honest notes on that climb: Some of the recent increase comes from the same hospitals striking more than once, often several short walkouts during a single contract fight, which lifts the yearly count; and Strikes from the late 2010s are simply harder to document than todays, so the earliest years may be undercounted. Even allowing for both, the direction is unmistakable - and independent trackers see the same thing. Cornell University's Labor Action Tracker found Health Care Strikes rose 58% in 2025 over the year before, with the number of workers involved more than doubling. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports education and health services accounted for 64% of all Workers idled by major Strikes in 2025, more than any other sector. The jump follows the staffing crisis Nurses have lived with since 2020. When Nurse.org looked at the reasons behind every walkout, staffing levels were at the heart of 95 of the 107 strikes. Pay and patient safety come up too, but unsafe assignments and being stretched too thin are what push Nurses to the picket line.

To Continue Reading This Labor News Story, Go To: Nurse Strikes Have Quadrupled Since 2017. Here's Why It Keeps Growing | Nurse.Org