Burnout on the Frontlines: A Nurse's Experience

Imagine this...You walk onto the floor, and you are greeted by the weight of responsibility for 25 patients - five or six of whom you must know very well. You'll track when they eat, if they eat, how much they pee, the color, and when their last bowel movement was, and specific details that for the sake of time, I won't elaborate. You have to know their labs, mental status, medications, vital signs, and wounds because each of them are entirely under your care. The nightshift CNA has called in and there are only four nurses including you, to manage it all.

The night begins with a bedside shift report for each one of your patients. One patient requires bladder scans and catheterization every six hours, while another is aggressive and needs to be on contact precautions, in isolation. A third had a fall and needs neuro checks every hour. Another is dying alone, and another is suicidal, and requiring constant supervision. You monitor telemetry, or heart rhythms, on a monitor for five patients, oxygen saturation status for three, and bed alarms for a confused patient who is incontinent and trying to escape. Each task demands vigilance, whether it's maintaining IVs, managing "nothing by mouth" (NPO) patients for surgery prep, or administering pain meds.

Short staffing compounds the chaos. Calls from families pour in, demanding updates you can't immediately give because you're busy cleaning a patient or comforting someone in pain. When you finally return their call, you're reprimanded for not responding sooner. You balance explaining care plans with calming fears and dealing with anger, while your other patients wait for medications, repositioning, or basic care.

Then there's the system - medications locked away or delayed by a swamped pharmacy, charting software that fights you at every turn, and constant demands to meet administrative expectations. Despite your best efforts, you are criticized for incomplete documentation, delayed dressings, or untidy rooms. Meanwhile you're skipping meals, holding your bladder, and pushing through sheer exhaustion.

This is nursing.
This is why we are burned out.
This is why we are short-staffed.
This is why nurses and CNAs are leaving the profession.