By NNPBC and Advica Health
May 8, 2026
May is Mental Health Awareness Month and a chance to reflect on how to support mental wellness within nursing.
Burnout gets talked about a lot, but in practice it’s not always obvious when it’s happening.
At its core, burnout occurs when work-related stress builds up over time without enough relief or change. The World Health Organization describes it as a mix of ongoing exhaustion, feeling more detached or cynical about work and a reduced sense of effectiveness.
In nursing roles, that stress doesn’t just come from one thing. It’s the accumulation of pressures that add up over time: patient complexity, staffing demands, shift work, documentation requirements, system constraints. And because it builds gradually, it can be easy to miss while you’re in the middle of it.
What burnout can feel like
Most people don’t think “I’m burnt out.” It’s usually more like noticing that work feels different than it used to.
You might catch yourself:
- Caring, but having to work harder to access that sense of connection with patients
- Getting more frustrated or cynical than you used to
- Finishing a shift or day of work without that sense of “I did something good today”
- Having a harder time focusing or making decisions
There can be physical signs too:
- Feeling tired or run down in a way that doesn’t fully go away, even after rest
- Getting sick more often
- Sleep being off, especially if you have rotating shifts
And sometimes it shows up in small behaviour changes:
- Pulling back from colleagues
- Questioning your competence more than usual
None of this is dramatic on its own. That’s part of what makes burnout easy to overlook. It often sets in as a slow shift rather than a sudden change.
Why burnout feels different in nursing
It’s well-known that nursing workloads are demanding. The nature of nursing work adds another dimension to burnout in our profession.
You’re making decisions, managing risk and supporting people through difficult moments, and often all at once. That takes a certain kind of energy. Over time, it can get harder to stay fully present in the same way, which is where compassion fatigue can come in.
There’s also something many nurses and nurse practitioners recognize but don’t always name: the moral distress of knowing what good care looks like and not always being able to provide it because of system constraints.
It’s important to recognize that this isn’t the failing of any individual nurse or NP. This relates to how nursing work is structured and that gap can be particularly distressing, leading to frustration, guilt and emotional overwhelm.
What can help
There’s a lot of messaging out there about self-care. Supporting yourself with resources, habits that work for you, a network and more are essential. They’re not the whole story, though. What the research shows is that burnout improves when both the work environment and individual supports are addressed together.
On a personal level, things that can help include:
- Talking to someone who understands workplace stress
- Staying connected to colleagues, even informally
- Finding small ways to reset during or between shifts, when possible
Important structural drivers of wellness are also:
- Staffing levels that match the work
- Schedules that allow for real rest
- Supportive teams and leadership
- Less unnecessary administrative load
When both of these things shift, nursing work becomes less exhausting and more sustainable.
Getting support
It’s not always easy to seek help when you’re busy helping others. That’s why NNPBC connects nursing professionals to reliable access to mental health support when they need it.
Mental Health on Demand is available to all nurses and NPs in BC and their immediate family members through a partnership with Advica Health, a Canadian health-navigation company specializing in personalized, clinician-led support.
Through this initiative, you can schedule appointments as soon as the next day with sessions offered at a preferred rate of $90/hr. You’ll also have access to a broad network of multilingual therapists offering different approaches. Learn more about how to access Mental Health on Demand.
Additional resources
- The Canadian Nurses Association has compiled mental health resources for nurses and nurse practitioners, many of which were developed during COVID-19 but continue to be relevant for managing stress, burnout and workplace fatigue today
- The British Columbia Nurses' Union has also developed practical tools and supports focused on monitoring and maintaining mental health in nursing practice
- If you are having an emergency or are in crisis, please call 911 or 988 or visit your local emergency department