National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses Non-Substantive Change (May 2026)

The NSSRN is collected to help fulfill the congressional mandates of the Public Health Service Act, Title 42, U.S.C. Section 294n(b)(2)(A) and Section 295k(a)-(b). These mandates ensure the development of information describing and analyzing the health care workforce and workforce-related issues. Through means of collecting, compiling, and analyzing data on healthcare professionals, this survey provides required information for decision-making regarding future directions in health professions and nursing programs in response to societal and professional needs. Such data have become particularly important to better understand workforce issues given the recent dynamic changes in the RN population and the transformation of the healthcare system. Previous improvements to the NSSRN were made based on changes in healthcare policy, best practices in survey methodology, and a section on nurse practitioners (NPs) was added. Previously, NP data were collected in a separate survey called the National Sample Survey of Nurse Practitioners (NSSNP). The updated survey, which incorporates questions from both previous surveys, retains the name “The National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses.” The intent behind combining these two surveys was to reduce redundancy in the collection of data, which results in lower costs and burden on respondents that accompanied the administration of two separate surveys. The 2022 NSSRN had some changes to content from 2018, but it did not undergo a major redesign.

The latest form for National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses Non-Substantive Change (May 2026) expires 2028-11-30 and can be found here.