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Jump to Key Points Clancey Sollis, DNP, RN, CNE, CCRN-K, worked as a bedside nurse for 6 years before becoming a student success coach, nursing faculty, and program leader at Joyce University of Nursing and Program Leadership in Draper, Utah. The bedside work “was beautiful; I can remember so many amazing, soul-changing experiences I had,” she said. “And then, there was also the idea that I really couldn’t be a mom with that job. It was very, very hard. I didn’t see my family as often. It was a double-edged sword.”
That mixture of difficulty within a dream nursing job is what prompted Joyce researchers to study nurse burnout. In a survey of 1000 nurses across the US in 2025, the study found that about three quarters of all nurses surveyed reported feeling “emotionally drained” from their work several times a week. Many said they didn’t feel rested enough to perform successfully on the job and worried that such fatigue would lead to making mistakes while caring for patients. Forty-seven percent said they struggled to sleep most or all nights because of work-related anxiety. And 55% said they usually skipped meals or breaks on most shifts because they didn’t feel they had the time to take them.
The study was conducted because “our responsibility is training future nurses and we wanted to understand the environment we are sending our nurses out into,” said Sollis. The profession has evolved since the COVID pandemic, and while burnout has been widely discussed for years prior, Sollis said that researchers “wanted to hear directly from nurses about what they’re experiencing today because those insights will help us think about how we prepare our students beyond their clinical judgment and their skills.”
About Medscape Insights
Medscape continually surveys physicians and other medical professionals about key practice challenges and current issues, creating high-impact analyses. For example, the Medscape Nurse Practitioner Burnout & Depression Report 2026 found:
- Nearly half of the nurse practitioners (NPs) in our survey reported being burned out.
- 6 in 10 respondents believe their burnout is worse than in nonmedical fields.
- NPs in the survey want their workload reduced rather than additional staff or cultural goodwill from administrators.
Experts say that reducing the kind of burnout and fatigue we see that lead many nurses to leave the profession includes taking control of the work environment, embracing mental health support, a thoughtful use of technology to alleviate some tasks, and developing and promoting nursing leadership who model healthy living and create supportive work environments for nursing staff. Also, of note is understanding that mandatory overtime is a symptom of a larger problem and shouldn’t be considered status quo.
- 75% of nurses felt emotionally drained several times weekly.
- 47% reported sleep disruption from work-related anxiety.
- 55% skipped meals/breaks on most shifts; fatigue ↑ error risk.
- 74% worked mandatory OT ≥3 times/month; staffing shortages drive burden.
- Interventions: supportive leadership, breaks, mental health access, tech to reduce workload.
Step Up Before Being Asked
Getting up and going to work every day, clocking in and out, and never having a say in the practice can lead to burnout, but finding your voice within the workforce can make a difference, said Karie Ryan, RN-DNP, CENP, the chief nursing officer at Artisight, a smart hospital platform that uses AI, two-way audio and video, and other technology to help improve patient safety while reducing clinician burden.
To combat job burnout, nurses should “participate in organizational development, and see how nurses practice within an organization,” she said. “Don’t wait to be asked to come to the table; just take a seat.” Invite yourself to meetings such as the falls committee or the practice committee. “Get involved in how nurses are practicing within your organization so that you feel empowered to make change.”
Doing so shouldn’t necessarily take extra time, Ryan said. “I hope that organizations are allowing nurses to participate in those types of things while at work.” She also suggested reading professional journals to understand healthcare trends and to understand what other organizations are doing to bring ideas to the table. Focusing energy and participating in helping to develop a positive work environment that can reduce the factors that lead to nurse burnout is something all nurses can do to help.
Marisa Quinn, DNP, MBA, RN, NEA-BC, director of nursing for Infusion Services at University of California, San Francisco, Health, agreed. “ Nurses should have opportunities to provide feedback and help shape operational decisions. Feeling heard improves engagement and reduces burnout. Leaders should create a supportive culture: Ensure staff take meal and rest breaks, and organizations should foster teamwork, connection, and wellness, rather than relying solely on nurses to ‘push through,’” she said.
Prioritize Self-Care and Mental Health Support
Because burnout reflects systemic problems and isn’t necessarily an individual issue, it’s important to practice self-care in whatever way a person finds meaningful, said Ryan.
“Take whatever time you have, however you’re re-energized, such as spending time with your kids, or reading a book. Take your vacations. Roll over your paid leave or paid time off every year.” Use 3-day weekends when possible and take all the time off you’re entitled to ensure enough space to recover from the stress of the job.
When it comes to protecting yourself against burnout, skipping “self-care, in whatever form that looks like for an individual, is not really an option,” and there is no reward for not taking the paid time off that you have earned, added Ryan.
Prioritizing mental health shouldn’t be stigmatized, but some nurses in the Joyce University survey, particularly those who identified as Gen Z (born between 1997 and 2012), felt it was, said Sollis. “One quarter of the nurses surveyed said they are not using mental health services in the workplace because they’re concerned for possible impacts on their careers and the lack of confidentiality,” she said.
This again emphasizes how nursing leadership can support nursing staff by promoting the importance and confidential use of mental health resources as needed to manage job-related stress, said Sollis. “The only way nurses are going to survive is with the help of mental health services.”
Sollis cited her own experience in therapy, adding that learning how to build resilience, develop healthier coping skills, and replacing stress responses with more constructive reactions helped her improve her professional life as well as her role as a partner and a parent.
How Tech Can Help
Experts believe that evolving technology can help nurses avoid or reduce burnout. “I want to help nurses understand how technology can benefit, and not replace, them — we’re never going to have enough nurses,” said Ryan. We need to find ways to increase nursing satisfaction and counteract the challenges we have, and I think technology is one way to do that.”
Quinn cited an AI-based tool used at UCSF that helps schedule patient loads for nurses at area infusion centers; charge nurses oversee the process. “It took some of the friction out of depending on people to pick up patients and do the work that was needed and being able to work in enough pacing so that a nurse can pause, take a break, and come back and not feel like patients will be waiting,” said Quinn. “It was great because it was data-driven and it showed from a leadership standpoint that we were taking intentional steps to address the issue.” After its implementation, Quinn said 75% of the nurses reported better pacing of their assignments. “Technology isn’t the be-all, end-all, but where it can help, it can help.”
Other tech, such as AI scribes, have helped ease the burden of ongoing documentation during patient interactions, Quinn added. Providers “have reported great satisfaction of being able to talk to their patients and save time,” she said. Ultimately, the goal is to help nurses spend more time on direct patient care.
Handling Mandatory Overtime
The Joyce University study found that 74% of nurses interviewed reported having worked mandatory overtime at least three times in the past month. Turnover often led to fewer nurses being able to work and requiring overtime to cover the work, despite a 2024 Korean study noting that “labor policy should ban mandatory overtime.”
Sollis said that when she worked as a bedside nurse, overtime was never mandatory but was available to those who wanted to earn extra income but noted that staffing shortages in rural areas are more likely to require mandatory overtime. At UCSF, Quinn said that mandatory overtime “is really reserved for exceptional circumstances, such as declared emergencies.”
Ryan noted that mandated overtime stemmed from nurses leaving, which increased the burden on existing nurses. “Nurses working overtime is cheaper than hiring a travel nurse, but it’s more expensive when it burns your staff out,” she said; she called the concept of mandated overtime “an organizational and care model failure.”
To counter mandatory overtime, Ryan suggested using more virtual tools, as well as having nurses come to nursing leadership with suggestions that are valued by that leadership toward the mutual goal of preventing or reducing nurse turnover.
Ultimately, nurses can make their own choices about avoiding burnout by choosing where they work to some extent. Because nurses are in demand, they should seek employers with supportive cultures that prioritize staff well-being and support nurses against burnout. “Think about the fact that you’re a nurse at a time where there’s a significant shortage, and you have agency to choose a place and a culture and a team that is supportive,” Quinn said.
Quinn reported providing ad hoc nursing advisory services to LeanTaaS, and UCSF is a client of LeanTaaS, a program she cited that helps distribute infusion nurse’s workflow.
The other experts cited in this article had no relevant disclosures.
Cheryl Alkon is a seasoned writer covering healthcare and medicine. She is the author of the book Balancing Pregnancy with Pre-Existing Diabetes: Healthy Mom, Healthy Baby. Find her at CherylAlkon.com.
