Calling all nurses! Do you work nights, weekends, and holidays? Do you work overtime every week to pay the bills? Or maybe you work overtime because there isn’t enough staff, and you feel responsible when your co-workers have to work short-handed. Do you have nursing shortage burnout?
I originally wrote this article in late 2018. The statistics were real, but then COVID hit, so I revisited this article in May o 2020 and again in 2022. With the pandemic and nurses retiring, the shortage is nearing panic mode.
I have friends working in 15-bed emergency rooms with 2 nurses with all 15 beds full. I bet you can identify with these horribly dangerous situations. Patients are coming in and abusing the nurses. Large hospitals are closing.
Have you been working during COVID-19 with very little support from the hospital administration? Are they telling you to wear the same mask and gown for 2 or 3 days at a time because they cost too much to throw away? Or maybe you were told to take Tylenol or Advil before you come to work so you won’t have a fever?
Are you worried about your family, so you isolate yourself from them and miss them so much? Is it time for a change?
When Will The Shortage End?
According to the American Nurses Association (ANA) and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics;
By the year 2022, more than 500,000 baby boomer R.N.s will retire. This drop in the nursing workforce will present a need for 1.1 million new R.N.s to avoid the nursing shortage.
1.1 million!!! You’ve got to be kidding. These numbers are of catastrophic proportion. 2022 is just 1.5 short years away.
As a nurse, you may be thinking all you have to do is hang in there and work overtime for only two more years. But after the COVID-19 pandemic, you know you have to make a change right now. You can’t take the chance of putting your family in harm’s way.
And if you are of retirement age, you can’t continue to expose yourself. Right now, you know the world needs you, but how many nurses will escape the nursing shortage burnout after this is all over.
Update On Statistics On The Nursing Shortage Burnout
According to The University Of St Augustine For Health Sciences:
“It’s important to note that COVID-19 created a wave of artificial early retirements due to the extended period of limited access for both patients and staff to medical facilities. Because hospitals stopped doing elective surgeries and patients stayed away from the hospital, hospitals had less income and needed to reduce staff to stay afloat. In response, many hospitals forced furloughs on their employees, leading some people to opt to retire who wouldn’t have planned to otherwise.”
The Nursing Shortage Burnout Is Not Going To End
The nursing shortage will not end in 2022; it will only become an insurmountable problem. Nursing schools are also affected by the nursing shortage. Many nurses teach in schools, and the lack of nurses to run the programs is also causing issues.
Nursing schools across the nation are turning down applicants to the tune of 80,000 highly qualified undergraduates. The rejected applicants carry excellent GPAs, but schools cannot take new students because of the shortage of nursing instructors.
Nursing Shortage Burnout
The nursing shortage is not going to end. You will be working overtime and risking your life, and eventually, you will be required to step up your game to include “on-call” shifts. I am sure you have been a victim of this during these difficult times.
What else will hospitals do? They can’t just let sick patients lie in a bed without care, and since you are working for an institution, they will put the heavyweight on you to help solve the problem.
What will you do? You enjoy nursing, and you became an R.N. to help others. But at what expense will you stay in this profession? You have become a victim of the system, and your family, health, and license may suffer.
On September 6, 2018, I retired from E.R. nursing. I am a baby boomer R.N. The hours and workload were becoming too much for me to handle physically. There was no way I could continue for 4 or 5 more years.
Take Care Of Yourself First
What about you? Are you a generation x, millennial, or baby boomer, and how long can you keep up with this increasing demand on your mind and body? NOW is the time to start a plan to save yourself from the evolution of health care.
I know the caring part of you says you can’t abandon your co-workers. But the truth is each one of you can make the same choice to care for yourself. Do you think that staying in nursing will change what is coming around the corner? Nursing shortage burnout is real!
COVID-19 has caused a considerable number of nurses to develop PTSD. We have to take care of our nurses and provide the help they need, but hospitals are struggling financially. Do you think nurses will have the support they need now with so many hospital doors ready to close due to financial difficulties?
“I have missed kids’ school events, I have been short-tempered when I shouldn’t have been, and I have compromised my own health at times due to my inability to say ‘no’ to the extra shifts even on days when I knew I should.”
Heather Josey Thomas
“We would go home to shower not just because we didn’t want to risk exposing loved ones, but to attempt to wash off trauma, wash away the guilt of wondering if we could do more.”
Grace DeFrank
Are You The Solution?
You are the temporary solution the hospitals will use to care for the patients and keep their doors open. Are you a part of the problem and the answer to the pandemic? The hospitals did not stand behind your safety. Now I know a few did, but the majority were under such financial constraints even before the pandemic. They could not afford more PPE to ensure your safety. Their solution was to tell you to sacrifice your well-being for the better good of the institution, not for the better good of the patient.
Are you willing to sacrifice your entire being to solve their problem? I will offer you a way to rescue yourself from the nursing shortage burnout.
What Can You Do About The Nursing Shortage Burnout?
In all of my nursing career, I wanted to learn something besides nursing. Now don’t get me wrong, I loved taking care of others, but it was so difficult raising a family working swing shifts. My family rarely saw me on holidays for family gatherings. I always knew that nursing shortage burnout would affect me one day. But I never knew what I could do that would pay the kind of income I made as a nurse.
When I began my online internet business, it took me a few years to get it going before I found a place to teach me how to make money with it. After I really learned how to monetize my site, it is a great way to make an income at home.
Have you ever thought, “I can’t do this” because I just don’t know enough about it? Well, before you started nursing, you couldn’t do it either until you went to school and had training. This is no different than learning a new career.
Let me share some truth. Owning an internet business does have its challenges, but it does allow you to stay home with your family and be there for holidays and special times. Is your nursing job easy? NO, it is not!
Power Up To Begin
Beginning now is imperative. It takes time to set your business up with the training, and it takes time to make money. No one can guarantee what amount of time because you will get out of your business what you put in.
But let me give you a ballpark idea regarding the amount of time in months. Someone who works an affiliate marketing business full time and follows all the training steps may expect to see income 6 months on average. So, if you are working this business part-time, you can double six months or triple it if you only operate it on the weekend.
There is no guarantee of the income you will make. It is dependent on you and your output. But please remember, nursing may be sucking the life out of you, and nursing shortage burnout is real. Now is the time to get rolling so you can work from home and make a passive online income.
Make It Happen
Maybe you are thinking, “I don’t have time for this because you are required to work overtime to take care of so many sick patients, or do you lack time because you are burnt out and exhausted because of nursing shortage burnout? You have nothing to give back when you are off work. What will happen after the pandemic? Is the hospital administration standing behind you, supporting you, or are they pushing you? Now is the time to start and plan for your future. Don’t wait until you feel trapped into mandatory overtime with no choice of how to protect yourself and your family.
The decision is ultimately yours to make. I am offering a way for you to take care of yourself and your family in a business that can potentially create an income comparable to and most likely above what you make now.
I am sad to see that there is a nursing shortage going on in this country. Not only do you need them to fill the needs of patients. But I feel like more and more people are getting sick every year. My mom is a RN and the idea of her working even longer to cover the shortage is not pleasant to think about considering she is close to retiring.
While the money is nice, I can’t ever see myself working 60 to 80 hours a week for that kind of money. Id rather build something that is more sustainable for me and my body long term. I hope nurses can understand that and figure out how to implement your advice.
Jessie, Yes more people are getting sicker. The large number of baby boomers are aging and the longevity of our life is contributing to the increasing numbers of illness.
I hope those in need of an alternative do see my post. I want to help nurses empower themselves.
Working 9 to 5 is hard enough. Being a nurse that continuously requires working additional hours is even tougher. Shortage of nurses never ends because there are increased of patients EVERYDAY due to the processed food that we consumed. I would highly recommend nurses to start planning for their future by starting something that can give you a balance life.
Oh so true. If they don’t plan ahead they will be left in the dark. So sad.
Thank You florence
Thank you for sharing this important article. I work as a math tutor in a local community college and I can say that there are less students applying for the nursing program there and your post gives me a better idea of why this is happening.
I know that it’s hard to get into and that most students may feel like they don’t have the skills for it. I hope that college students get to your website and read this article because it is concerning to know that in a few years, we may have a shortage of people in medicine field. I will definitely use this topic on my next conversation with students that are not 100% decided on what to do in life, perhaps this inspires them!
Victor, I do hope it inspires them also. I have so loved nursing but it is not what it use to be. It is a business now and not a caring profession. This is why I am offering wealthy affiliate to the nursing profession. Nurses need to empower themselves and take control of their lives.
Thanks for stopping by.
Hi Laura, I can relate to being a baby boomer..and also realising how much energy you need to work to sustain a decent living.
It is a pity that nurses are so overworked. This happens in many other industries too. For example construction workers and legal secretaries. People are looking for a way out. They want to work normal hours and still enjoy family life.
I totally understand where you are coming from and wish you all the best in your new venture with Wealthy Affiliate.
~Stella
Stella,, yes this is happening everywhere. People are still trying to do a steady job when technology is leading us to online business. Because of this the ones working in the world every day have to more for less to keep businesses afloat.
Thanks for your input. I do appreciate you Stella.
Having just spent some time in hospital I recognise what you are saying.
The nurses want to help, but they appear to be being pulled in different directions. I saw some nurses (actually most) running between rooms, running to the see a doctor before he/she left and then running to cover for another nurse who just had to go to the toilet.
If I can see this from a 2 day stay in hospital then I am sure that it is a problem of major concern, worldwide!
Your advice for nurses to prepare for the future is sound, however, they must be exhausted when they finish their shift, only to have to go home to a family wanting this and that.
There must be a way!
I am already a member of Wealthy Affiliate, and I can say that if anyone, not just a nurse were to join they have the advantage that they can schedule their work around the lessons they need to complete. Thus at all times they know where they are up to with their business.
Steve, The nursing shortage and the amount of work a nurse has to do while keeping people alive has risen to epic proportion. But nurses try so hard to do what is ethical. They just can not keep it up. This is my plea to all nurses to plan for their future and if they want to continue nursing they can work when they want to. Not when the hospital says they have to.
My heart goes out to all nurses.
I would definitely encourage absolutely anyone to sign up for Wealthy Affiliate, what do you have to lose.
You can sign up for free, I did so a long time ago but until now was not able to go premium due to circomstances, now that it has changed, I have decided to try to take control of my future.
There is no B.S. get rich quick claims, nothing but the truth. Hard work pays off. So take the time and do the work and you will succeed.
Shy, you are right. Thank you for your comment. Much appreciated.