During the pandemic, intense levels of stress and burnout have driven nurses away from the profession, leading experts to push for new programs and efforts to reduce burnout and improve working conditions, Bradford Pearson writes for the New York Times.

Burnout continues to push nurses away from the field

"Burnout has always been a part of nursing," Pearson writes, "an effect of long working hours in physically and often emotionally taxing environments."

While the pandemic exacerbated some of the already existing problems with burnout, it also added new ones, including staffing shortages, growing violence against healthcare workers, and an increase in deaths from COVID-19.

According to a study from the American Nurses Foundation released last month, 57% of nurses reported feeling "exhausted" over the last two weeks, and 43% said they felt burned out. Overall, only 20% of nurses said they felt valued.

As burnout continues to grow, many nurses are feeling emotionally and physically drained from their jobs, and more are considering either switching to lower-stress jobs or sometimes even leaving the profession entirely.

"Whenever people ask casually — like, 'How are you doing?' — nobody really wants to hear the answer," said Kathleen Littleton, a former nurse who now does health promotion and engagement for an insurance company. "So much of what happens in the hospital, it's almost impossible to describe to your friends or family members who aren't involved in health care. And it's hard to talk about mental health. In nursing, sometimes it's frowned upon when people say, 'Oh I feel so burned out.' It's almost like a shameful way to approach it."

Littleton also said that she still feels some guilt for her decision to leave, even though doing so ultimately helped improve her mental health.

"I feel so guilty that I am not in the hospital still, and I also really mourn the loss of my critical care career," Littleton said. "I'm disappointed not in myself — because it's not fair to blame myself — but I'm really disappointed that I just can't do it anymore."

Kelly Schmidt, a 52-year-old who spent 25 years as a NICU nurse, said that she loved her job, patients, and co-workers, but challenges grew over the years, including a transition to electronic medical records, a stressful management role, and the pandemic.

As the pandemic worsened and nurses themselves began getting sick, Schmidt said that she "emotionally started feeling like a robot." Last May, she left her hospital job and started a new position as a school nurse.

"I don't want people to think the job I left was a bad job," Schmidt said. "It was just time for me to go. I've had other colleagues say, 'I don't want to leave my job hating it,' so they retire early. I didn't want to leave my job hating it. I wanted to leave on a high note."

"It's still hard work," she added. "It's still good work. I still am super busy. But it's not always life and death."

What can be done about nurse burnout?

According to Jennifer Mensik Kennedy, president of the American Nurses Association (ANA), "[b]urnout and our current issues have been going on for decades." Despite the intense levels of stress associated with the profession, interest in nursing has not waned over time.

In fact, ANA found that 60,000 qualified nursing applicants were turned away from nursing schools over the last year. However, with more experienced nurses leaving the profession, the hands-on, in-hospital training that students typically get will be impacted. This will affect the number of nurses who graduate and fill the gap.

Addressing burnout and staffing issues will be necessary to ensure that there are enough nurses to support the number of new graduates needed to fill the current nursing gap, Mensik Kennedy said.

To start, hospitals need to routinely measure nurses' stress levels and take action when they begin to increase. It is also important to stop glorifying the idea of working without adequate breaks.

"So what did we learn from the last couple of years?" Mensik Kennedy said. "That we need to make sure that we implement programs and processes to decrease the burnout and to improve the work environment. Because Covid is not the last pandemic, or the last major issue to happen." (Pearson, New York Times, 2/20)