Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about the state of nurse wellbeing…what it means, what it requires, and what it reveals about the systems we work in. A recent conversation with Dr. Cory Church helped me to look at nurse wellbeing through a different lens. You can listen to the full episode here, but I wanted to share a few reflections that have stayed with me since that discussion and offer some ideas I believe we need to be talking about more boldly as healthcare leaders.
One theme from our conversation was around practice readiness. We often focus on how prepared new graduate nurses are to enter the workforce from a competency standpoint. But readiness isn’t just about the nurse, it’s also about the organization. Are we truly prepared to support nurses entering practice? New nurses are entering a profession that’s more complex and emotionally demanding than ever. It’s not enough to support their professional skill development, we also need to be ready to support their mental health and emotional wellbeing. A new generation of nurses is bringing new expectations, and that requires us to think differently about how we lead, support, and sustain them.
Cory shared that it starts with making nurse wellbeing a strategic priority, not a side initiative or a wellness week, but something embedded into the way we lead and operate.
In healthcare, we’re constantly being asked to do more with less…produce more nurses, onboard them into roles quicker, take on more work, and keep pace with a system that rarely slows down. But when it comes to supporting new nurses and fostering wellbeing, maybe what we really need to do is slow down. Creating space for reflection, connection, and intentional growth might be exactly what our systems, and our people, need most.
Leaders also need to be equipped to recognize and respond to signs of burnout. Teams need space for regular check-ins and wellbeing huddles that normalize conversations about how they’re really doing. And peer support shouldn’t be optional; it should be built into the structure of our teams.
We also explored what it might look like to get a little more creative. What if we monitored wellbeing metrics, like biometrics or self-reported stress, and offered “wellbeing days” when thresholds were met? What if we reframed sick leave to include mental health and recovery time, recognizing that wellbeing isn’t just about not being sick? And what if we used wellbeing data as a predictor, not just of burnout, but of safety risks, job dissatisfaction, and turnover intent?
These ideas might feel a little unconventional, but maybe that’s what we need. The systems we’ve relied on for decades weren’t built for the challenges we’re facing today. If we want to build something more sustainable, we have to be willing to think differently and act boldly. At the end of the day, nurse wellbeing isn’t just about feeling good. It’s about being physically, psychologically, and professionally safe at work. It’s about being valued and feeling like we belong. It’s about retention. It’s about the future of our workforce.
If we want to build systems that last, we have to care for the people who hold them up.
There’s more to this conversation, and I hope you’ll take a moment to listen to the full episode with Cory. It’s a powerful reminder that the future of nursing depends not just on how we train our nurses, but on how we care for them once they arrive. Let’s keep having these conversations. Let’s keep pushing for change. And let’s not be afraid to slow down if it means we’re building something stronger.
Nicole Weathers, DNP, RN, NPD-BC
Iowa Online Nurse Residency Program Director
nicole-weathers@uiowa.edu
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