Health Care Workers Raise Burnout Concerns at Brooklyn Center Event
An event Thursday in Brooklyn Center addressed concerns about the state’s health care workforce.
Industry leaders say half of health care workers face significant burnout risk contributing to a wide range of disorders, including post-traumatic stress.
“Often on people’s worst days, we’re showing up to care of them, but at the end of the day, we go home as humans, our stethoscopes don’t protect us from that,” said Christa Rymal, a registered nurse. “We experience all of the same collective trauma, we experience all of the sadness, all of the grief, all of the injury, all of the disease. We carry that.”
Rymal founded WeCare, a nonprofit that offers holistic workshops for health care workers. One of those events took place Thursday at the Heritage Center of Brooklyn Center, offering a variety of health and wellness tips for hundreds of health care workers.
“It’s really a cause and a mission everyone should care about because when you need someone at your bedside, you don’t want the person who’s burned out, has unprocessed grief, who has lack of their own physical or psychological well-being,” said Rymal.
Rymal said the burnout issue has been around far before the COVID-19 pandemic, which only exacerbated the problem.
“I have lost multiple colleagues to suicide. I have watched multiple colleagues leave the profession,” said Rymal, who has worked in health care for 25 years.
Recent studies magnify the problem.
According to McKinsey & Company, the country may experience a shortage of between 200,000 and 450,000 registered nurses by 2025.
Another study by the National Council of State Boards of Nursing found that more than 610,388 RNs reported an “intent to leave” the health care workforce by 2027 due to stress, burnout or retirement.
“We need to normalize this conversation. It needs to be at the table,” said Rymal. “It needs to be talked about, it needs to be cared about, it needs to be expressed.”
