Modern Healthcare is Breeding Burnt-Out Nurses

100 years ago, hospitals barely existed and people died everyday from
infections from cuts.

Who reading this thinks that Doctors and Nurses just come with the building
and do not have a choice of other career options?

We choose to use our time and energy, our career, to help others on what may
be the worse days of their lives.

We do this because we deeply care about people and don’t want anyone to
needlessly suffer at home, alone, if there is something that can be done.

So we study, devoting our lives to better understanding the human body so we
can help when things go wrong.

Today, we all are dealing with chronic health problems.

Every shift, every beep, every gurgle, every whispered plea for help echoes a
relentless storm brewing inside all of us.

Every shift, every beep, every gurgle, every ignored plea for more help echoes a relentless storm brewing inside all of us.

Burnt-Out Nurses are taking a collective deep breath before releasing a soon to be heard primal scream.

This is not sustainable.

Healthcare was already broken, covid simply brought it all to a head a little faster.

I Didn’t Know I Had a Choice; Once a Nurse, Always a Nurse…

I stumbled towards the edge of the burnout cliff a few years before the pandemic.

Burnout wasn’t a choice, I didn’t think about quitting because I was a born nurse, I love taking care of people, so I kept pushing forward.

“It usually comes down to a simple choice, get busy living or get busy dying” Shawshank Redemption.

That thought made me realize that if I was dead I wouldn’t be any help to anyone so I might as well take care of myself and see what happened.

Unlike other professions, healthcare workers have to not only juggle our lives and health but also protect our fragile patients.

We can’t afford to crack, not when lives are at risk.

But I did crack.

It was no longer safe for me to take responsibility for others lives because mine was on fire.

Leaving bedside nursing wasn’t a luxury, it’s was a desperate scramble for safety.

Taking Time To Recover and Speaking OUT is a Priviledge

In the years since my burnout, I realized a terrible truth.

Making the choice to leave bedside and not go back was a priviledge that countless others simply do not have.

It is hard to believe that nearly 50% of the Nursing workforce say they want to leave bedside but haven’t been able to yet.

A lot of those are trapped by circumstances out of their control.

Who Cares for the Caregivers?

Lying about how we feel when it’s impossible to be honest about our mental health and stay employed is normal human behavior.

Nurses and Doctors are human beings too.

We are parents, caregivers to our sick family and friends, shift workers who have responsibilities to not only ourselves, our loved ones, our financial future but also to the public at large.

We are teetering on the edge of sleep deprivation and chronic illness because we try to be everything, to everyone, all at once.

How can we speak up for ourselves when our voices are choked by the fear of losing our careers and our healthcare insurance if we quit?

We simply can’t.

But we can start to put our needs first by eating healthy and make our health our first priority so we can then show others the way.

How Can We Support Healthcare Workers Still in the Trenches?

Speak up as often as you can, as a witness for those nurses who simply can’t, because healthcare does not tolerate it when we speak our truth.

I am thinking of the nurses who can’t do what is right because the healthcare system will not tolerate them advocating for themselves anymore than they tolerate advocating for their patients.

During this new year I want to ask everyone that is free to speak up, let’s rip the duct tape off our lips and shatter the code of nursing silence in 2024.

Let’s listen to our fellow nurses, feel the tremors beneath their laughter, and acknowledge the invisible battles raging underneath the surface.

Let those of us who escaped be a safe haven of compassion for the ones who are still in the trenches doing the hard work so patients get the care they need.

Keep sharing, keep fighting, and know that in countless hearts, we hope you find the strength to fully live your life again.

Every struggle and success we openly share is a blanket thrown across the fire of burnout.

Our voices, even whispered, can spark a tidal wave of change.

Know that you are not alone.

Please leave your thoughts for those Nurses still holding it together in the comments below.

Until Next Week,