When Tessa found the ShiftKey app, she had been working 13- to 16-hour shifts, five days per week. Regularly, she’d need to work the whole weekend, and as a mother of five, that meant missing out on a lot of things. It also meant burnout.
“Primarily what we experience in healthcare is burnout and fatigue, which doesn't come from our patient care at all,” Tessa says. “It comes from the corporate environment, the management environment, the staff environment.”
Tessa’s not alone in having experienced nurse burnout.
In 2024, we discovered that 81% of healthcare professionals had experienced burnout, 62% were at risk of burnout, and a full 49% had considered leaving the field altogether (ShiftKey). Stress and burnout continue to affect nurses: 74% of nurses report feeling emotionally exhausted multiple times a week, and 28% of GenZ nurses feel burned out every day (Joyce University).
Even though the problem is systemic (change is needed at the organizational and policy levels), recognizing the signs of burnout early can help nurses make choices that support their mental health.
What is nurse burnout?
The term “burnout” was coined in the 1970s by healthcare professional Herbert J. Freudenberger in his paper “Staff Burn-Out,” inspired by behavioral and physical changes he observed in himself and his colleagues (Scribd). At the same time, researcher Christina Maslach was seeing similar symptoms among social service workers (Washington Post). Her Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) is now considered the gold standard for measuring burnout (PubMed).
Burnout in nursing is no different from burnout in other industries, although research consistently identifies industry-specific drivers: high workload, inadequate coverage, long shifts, and low control over working conditions. These factors were confirmed most recently in a 2025 peer-reviewed study of nurses across clinical settings (PubMed).
The consequences of nurse burnout
Many nurses are drawn to healthcare because they love being of service, like Tessa. “I see people mostly on the worst day of their life, so if you can bring a light to that person, that individual, that family for that time, that's something that I do like to be a part of,” she says.
Yet, the mental and physical health consequences of burnout can rob nurses of the joy they feel in helping others. It also affects their physical and mental health, as well as the kind of care patients and residents receive. Here are some of the ways burnout can affect patients and nurses.
1. Poor physical and mental health
Emotional exhaustion is a telltale sign of nurse burnout. It's a feeling of being worn out and can include a host of other symptoms, including trouble sleeping, impaired concentration, and physical complaints. Depersonalization is a form of emotional detachment that causes nurses to feel indifferent or cynical toward patients — a self-protective coping response to prolonged exhaustion.
2. Lower quality of care
Burnout can affect patient safety by making licensed professionals less attentive and collaborative (JAMA). It's also been linked to cognitive issues such as attention deficits, which can lead to errors (PubMed). Errors can lead to poor patient outcomes, and poor patient outcomes can lead to more nurse burnout — creating a cycle that's difficult to break without systemic intervention.
3. High turnover in the nursing profession
The nurse burnout cycle has been directly linked to healthcare's high turnover rate, which sits at a national average of 17.6% (Beckers). To meet ongoing demand, the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects 189,100 RN openings will need to be filled every year through 2034. With nursing schools turning away more than 80,000 qualified applicants in 2024 alone, it's unclear how that demand will be met (American Association of Colleges of Nursing).
How to prevent burnout in nursing
There’s no easy answer. Since nurse burnout is a systemic issue, individuals cannot resolve it without organizational support. But they can take action to help keep it at bay.
1. Practice self-care
Practicing self-care alone is not enough to overcome the symptoms of burnout. But there’s no risk in starting a meditation practice, eating healthier food or getting more sleep, so that’s a great place to start.
2. Advocate for yourself
Beating nurse burnout also requires taking action at work. One study found that healthcare professionals either feel that there is no use in speaking up or fear the consequences of speaking up.
If you’re hesitant to speak up for yourself, think about how much value your work brings to your organization. Speaking up for yourself at work may help you speak up for your patients, too, which is crucial in avoiding errors and adverse patient outcomes.
3. Choose a flexible work environment
Flexible work is a potential antidote to nurse burnout. If you’re working full- or part-time, see what kind of flexibility your community can offer you. Or consider using a marketplace platform like ShiftKey, where facilities post shifts as needed.
Tessa appreciates the flexibility she has with ShiftKey:
“My life is mine now,” she says. “I get to actually do what I want to do versus being kind of chained to the system of a career.”
4. Seek counseling
If you’re feeling the effects of nurse burnout, you may choose to seek professional help. In addition to the therapists in your local area, there are online options such as Better Help, Alma, Talkspace and more. Emotional PPE offers no-cost counseling for healthcare workers.
The role of healthcare organizations in addressing nurse burnout
It might sound like nurse burnout solely affects individuals, but Dr. Vivek Murthy, former U.S. Surgeon General, says that it will “place our nation’s health at increasing risk.”
To retain nurses like Tessa and keep them from burning out, organizations can implement the approach outlined in the 2022 U.S. Health and Human Services advisory. Here are a few of the strategies they recommend:
1. Create a healthy and supportive culture
Organizations can promote work-life balance by encouraging people to take time off and increasing access to mental health resources. They can organize events that help build connection among healthcare workers, and they can implement zero-tolerance policies for racism and violence while actively combating bias.
2. Recognize and reward
McKinsey reported that 75% of nurses who left their organization within an 18-month period said not being valued was a factor in their decision.
Organizations can show appreciation by recognizing accomplishments publicly, creating a culture of gratitude, providing bonuses and financial incentives, and even just ensuring food is on hand in the break room.
3. Address coverage and scheduling issues
When a facility doesn’t have adequate coverage, nurses are often required to work additional hours or care for more patients than they can handle. When that happens, patients may not get the care they need, which can lead to poor health outcomes. When patients have poor outcomes, nurses may experience moral injury, which can contribute to burnout.
“I was already burned out pre-pandemic,” Tessa says. “And again, it doesn't come from the patient care — it's everything else around it.”
Facilities can solve for varying occupancy rates, callouts and vacations without burning out their nurses by calling on independent professionals as needed. When independent professionals provide relief to full-time teams, nurse well-being and patient outcomes may improve.
How nurses are beating burnout and taking more control of their careers with the ShiftKey app
Nurses can use marketplace platforms to choose their own hours and manage their own schedules. When they use the ShiftKey app, they also get to choose their rate.
“I have said to my nurse friends that the freedom you get when you use an app like ShiftKey, you just can't compare to anything else,” Tessa says.
“If you have kids, you can be home with them more. If there's other things you want to do in life, you can schedule it around what you're doing, and you don't have to ask permission from anybody to take time off.”
Build a flexible career by scheduling your work around your life
When you use the ShiftKey app to book PRN shifts, long shifts, weekend shifts and back-to-back-to-back shifts are no longer required — you work on your own terms.
Since starting to use the ShiftKey app, Tessa has had more time for her family and her hobbies.
“We have five children and homeschool the younger two, so we spend a lot of our time at home homeschooling. And the rest of that is jujitsu. We own a jujitsu academy, and that is where our passion and our focus and our goals go — between our children and our hobbies.”
Creating a future that centers on health for all
As Dr. Murthy says, beating nurse burnout is a community effort. On their own, tech companies like ShiftKey, facilities, nurses, doctors and policymakers can move the needle a little. But if nurse burnout continues at the current rate or increases as projected, coverage shortages will continue, and that will affect everyone.
Ultimately, nurses must make the choices that are best for them. If you’re concerned about nurse burnout — for yourself, your organization or someone you love — visit the U.S. Surgeon General’s burnout index to access more resources on how to mitigate it.
If you’re seeking more flexibility in how you work, consider the ShiftKey app.
