National Nurses Week Spotlight
Prioritizing Mental Health in a High-Stress Profession
As National Nurses Week (May 6–12) begins, we celebrate the dedication, skill, and compassion nurses bring to healthcare every day. This year, let’s also focus on what nurses need in return.
The mental health crisis in nursing is real and urgent. Years of chronic understaffing, moral distress, and the lasting impact of the pandemic have taken a heavy toll. This Nurses Week, the most meaningful celebration we can have is prioritizing the mental health of nurses.
Data from the
American Nurses Foundation’s Pulse on the Nation’s Nurses Survey series continue to show that a majority of nurses feel overwhelmed, with high rates of burnout. Nurses also experience elevated rates of anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation compared to the general population. These challenges affect real people showing up to care for others while struggling in silence.
- Burnout develops gradually from chronic stress and includes emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced sense of accomplishment.
- Compassion Fatigue can appear more suddenly after repeated exposure to trauma and suffering.
- Moral Distress occurs when you know the right action but feel unable to take it due to institutional constraints.
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Recognizing these experiences is an important first step.
- Set Clear Boundaries: Protect your time and energy. Leave work at work when your shift ends. Practice saying no to extra shifts when you are already depleted.
- Create a Post-Shift Transition Ritual: Change out of scrubs, listen to music on your commute, take a shower, or do a short breathing exercise before entering your home.
- Use Quick Grounding Techniques: Try the 5-4-3-2-1 method or box breathing when you feel overwhelmed.
- Build Micro-Recovery Moments: Take 30-second resets during your shift. Look out a window, stretch, hydrate, or connect briefly with a supportive colleague.
- Strengthen Support Networks: Use your Employee Assistance Program (EAP), join peer support groups, or speak with a therapist who understands healthcare culture.
Nursing has a long tradition of self-sacrifice, putting patients first, working through exhaustion, and ignoring our own needs. This culture is harmful and unsustainable.
You are not a better nurse because you skip breaks. You are not more dedicated because you work exhausted. You are not more caring because you neglect your own health.
The best patient care comes from nurses who are rested, supported, and mentally healthy. Taking care of yourself is not selfish. It is a prerequisite for taking care of others effectively.
Resilience is not about being tough enough to withstand anything. It is about:
- Having skills and resources to cope with challenges
- Knowing when and how to ask for help
- Maintaining perspective during difficult times
- Finding meaning and purpose in your work
- Creating balance between work and other life domains
- Maintaining connections with supportive people
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Resilience can be developed and strengthened through practice.
Reach out for support if you experience persistent sadness, anxiety that interferes with daily life, intrusive thoughts, or suicidal ideation. Help is available and using it is a sign of professional strength.
Crisis Resources The mental health crisis in nursing won't be solved by individual coping strategies alone - we need systemic change. But while we work toward those larger changes, we must also take care of ourselves and each other right now.
This Nurses Week, make one commitment to your own mental health. Maybe it's:
- Scheduling that therapy appointment you've been putting off
- Setting one new boundary at work
- Connecting with a colleague who understands
- Using your EAP benefits
- Taking an actual, uninterrupted break during your next shift
- Saying no to the next extra shift when you're exhausted
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Small steps matter. Your mental health matters. You matter.
Happy Nurses Week. Take care of yourself with the same dedication you bring to caring for others.
