A Medical Emergency: Post-pandemic stress and burdens on healthcare workers causes them to rethink their involvement in the industry

*Names changed to protect identity.

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, nurses across the U.S. have reported burnout due to supply chain disruptions and longer hours without compensation, leading many nurses and healthcare workers to question their future in the field. 

Half of U.S. nurses have considered leaving their profession since the pandemic began, according to polls taken in November 2022 by staffing agency ConnectRN. The top reasons were cited as staffing shortages and a lack of employer support.

Nearly three years after the pandemic hit the U.S., its effect is still being felt in hospitals, especially by bedside nurses. 

Nurse shortages during COVID surges have contributed to the burnout, according to East parent and direct patient care nurse at Children’s Mercy Jodie Winfrey.

“If [a staff member] got sick, they would have to be away from the workplace for at least 10 days, so that left them short-staffed throughout that,” Jodie said. “Their nurse per number of patients ratio was way above what they were used to and led to their exhaustion and burnout.”

East parent and Olathe School District nurse Brad Winfrey graduated from nursing school in the ’80s, and says that burnout among healthcare workers has always been an issue, but never to this extent.

“I don’t think [burnout] was as bad as it was back when I started,” Brad said. “I think over time the expectation and the pressure that’s put on healthcare providers — not just nurses and not just doctors, but even those that are like the unlicensed personnel that help support the healthcare team — is more.”

Since the pandemic, neonatal bedside nurse Tricia Burkhart* recalls having more responsibilities and patients to take care of during her 12-hour shifts without higher compensation, as well as a lack of instruction and respect from her management. For these reasons, Burkhart is in the process of moving out of her ICU job to an acute care office job. 

As her hospital instituted new precautions with the onset of COVID cases, the need to adjust was placed on the nurses. To minimize contact, nurses were required to deliver medications and conduct labs at the bedside. Because their hospital was run by research-based professors, Burkhart says that they were always changing their protocols. The supply chain and staffing issues caused by COVID made this change different and more sudden.

“I would complain because [our laboratory] wasn’t very attentive right away, and we weren’t getting our labs done well or correctly,” Burkhart said. “And I complained to my manager, and all she said was, ‘Well, you’re not going to like what’s coming.’ But she didn’t elaborate that we’re losing lab altogether.”

Supply chain shortages and the constant need to adapt to new equipment without significant support from management, especially for Burkhart, added to the stress of caring for ill and dying patients.

“For adult nurses having the volume of patients dying — and they couldn’t have family members come in with the patients while they were dying — [nurses] had to be that link between the families saying goodbye to their loved one who was dying,” Jodie said. “And that takes such an emotional toll on nurses.”

With an increased workload and emotional burdens, there’s a decreased feeling of value, according to Burkhart. Her workload has grown with work conditions worsening, yet her management refuses to raise pay.

“I know nurses who have picked up a broom and swept, and people were complaining that it’s dirty,” Burkhart said. “[Nurses] were literally having to take care of the patients and put on a glove and take out the trash.”

There is also more transparency and discussion about compensation, according to Burkhart. As nurses traveled to hotspots like New York and Texas to make $4-5,000 in a week during COVID surges, nurses who have stayed loyal to their cooperation feel undervalued, according to Jodie.

“It was an opportunity that nurses hadn’t had before, so I think a lot of nurses did take advantage of that,” Jodie said. “It changed the culture, and a lot of nurses switched to travel nursing.”

Three years later, many nurses have sought new positions that are not directly at patients’ bedsides, like Burkhart, or have switched to travel nursing. Although COVID cases have decreased since the pandemic’s initial surge, nurses agree that it will have a lasting impact on healthcare, as nurses switch to travel nursing and politics become increasingly tied with the medical community.

“It started out with everyone being more supportive [of nurses] — you would hear about it in New York when they would all go on cheering for healthcare workers going to work every day,” Jodie said. “And then at some point it flipped, and I don’t know what point that was. It became more volatile. The vaccines became very political, masking became very political, and that became very personal to people.”

The politicization of healthcare in America burdens nurses dealing with patients first-hand who push against hospital policies like masking mandates and vaccinations, according to Jodie.

“Most hospitals still require masking in the facilities, and I don’t know if that will ever change,” Jodie said. “That still is a trigger for people, so when you enter a health facility and you’re told that you have to wear a mask and you don’t want to, that sets them on a defensive path through their healthcare journey. It makes them mad throughout, and when people are mad, they’re probably not as friendly to their healthcare workers as they would have normally been.”

Nurses are still fighting against this new workload and for better working conditions. This is why Burkhart is transferring to an office job in the medical field, where she will be paid the same compensation for part-time work and more control of her work life.

“If I had to put it into words, we’re feeling like, as a person, we’re not valued,” Burkhart said. “We’re just a number filling a need, and we can be replaced. And I think that’s what’s causing [healthcare workers] to think about something as simple as getting a more compassionate environment where you really feel heard, and about whether or not they could really affect change.”