Nurse burnout is increasingly driven by operational breakdowns the supply chain can directly influence, including missing supplies, inconsistent products, inefficient workflows, and poorly designed storage and care environments. These issues increase workarounds, slow care delivery, and add strain to already understaffed clinical teams.

This report outlines five practical supply chain actions healthcare organizations are using to improve reliability, reduce operational friction, and support nurse retention.

You’ll learn how to:

• Optimize supply chain operations to reduce time nurses spend searching for, substituting, or working around missing or inconsistent supplies.
• Identify and address supply chain contributors to burnout, with 65% of nurses citing stress tied to supply availability, workflow breakdowns, and poorly designed care environments.
• Reduce supply chain complexity through SKU standardization and simplified purchasing, enabling more consistent supply availability across facilities.
• Prevent stockouts and eliminate product variation and disorganized storage that slow care delivery—especially during understaffed shifts.
• Improve safety, morale and retention by making supply and equipment decisions that reduce physical strain and improve care and breakroom environments.