Like many healthcare professionals, Gloria, a Texas-based healthcare practitioner, developed a passion for healthcare as a child. And like many healthcare professionals, Gloria started to experience burnout while working in the career she’d dreamed of.
It was that burnout, combined with the fact that Gloria was working as a CNA while studying for her BSN, that led her to try ShiftKey, a marketplace platform that independent professionals use to connect with facilities that need to fill open shifts.
For Gloria, the ShiftKey app has been indispensable: “I don't think I would be able to work full-time and go to school at the same time. But with the ShiftKey app, I can choose to work weeknights or work the weekend. It’s helping me to build my career.”
The issues causing healthcare professional burnout
Burnout is common across industries: 53% of workers feel burned out, and 40% say that burnout is affecting their mental health (Ipsos). But that figure spikes among healthcare professionals. Sixty-two percent say they’re burned out right now, and 81% have experienced burnout in the past (ShiftKey).
Nurse burnout was at the forefront of our consciousness during the COVID-19 pandemic. But as the pandemic has faded into the background, so has the national focus on healthcare-professional mental health.
Gloria says: “So you get burned out, and at the same time, you're thinking, ‘If I don't go, who's gonna be there today?’ So you just keep going.” She’s not alone.
Of more than 1,000 nurses we surveyed for our “Solutions to Healthcare Burnout Report,” 94% said their work had required “significant” personal sacrifices, such as missing funerals, graduations, and other milestone events. Nearly half of those surveyed (49%) said they've considered leaving the field altogether.
Former Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy says that although healthcare professional burnout has personal consequences, it isn’t a personal issue. It stems from systemic problems, such as “inadequate support, escalating workloads and administrative burdens, chronic underinvestment in public health infrastructure, and moral injury from being unable to provide the care patients need”(New England Journal of Medicine).
Burnout and the looming public health crisis
According to Dr. Murthy and other industry experts, industrywide burnout could lead to a public health crisis in which fewer patients will be able to get the care they need. That public health crisis is already beginning.
More than 138,000 nurses have left the workforce since 2022, and nearly 40% of nurses say they intend to leave by 2029, citing stress and burnout as the No. 1 reason (NCSBN). 56% of nurses are experiencing burnout, and early-tenure nurses (those with less than 10 years of experience) cite insufficient coverage as their top reason for considering leaving (ANF). This year, there’s a nationwide deficit of about 260,000 RNs, with demand outpacing supply (HRSA).
The exodus is not limited to RNs.
Mercer's report, “Future of the U.S. Healthcare Industry: Labor Market Projections by 2028,” projects that 6.5 million medical support workers (such as CNAs, medical assistants, and home health aides) are expected to leave the workforce, with nursing assistants facing the sharpest shortage of any single occupation.
From burnout to work-life balance: How some healthcare professionals are creating better mental health
Technology companies like ShiftKey are quietly empowering healthcare professionals to overcome burnout by taking more ownership of their own schedules. With more of a say in how and when they work, healthcare professionals gain the flexibility that contributes to work-life balance.
That flexibility is the key to beating burnout: In fact, our research shows that 97% of healthcare professionals think they could use more of it. Personal caregiving responsibilities compound burnout, and 81% of healthcare professionals have them (ShiftKey).
Flexible schedules can make it possible for them to remain in the industry.
Molly, an independent RN and a single mother of a 3 year old, is now able to work shifts that accommodate her “hectic life.” She says that she works weekends when she wants to and gets to spend most holidays with her son.
An independent professional named Austin says that he’s surprised by how much energy he has had since beginning to complete shifts via the ShiftKey app — enough to start a business on the side.
“When I had a 9-to-5 job, even though it was like a 6-to-10 job most days, I wasn't able to have a life outside of that. And when you're able to make your own schedule, you're able to come up with so many ideas. It allows you to understand that there are other ways to make money. It really does open your mind up.”
In addition to more flexibility, apps like ShiftKey offer licensed independent professionals access to different care settings, which may rekindle their passion for patient care.
Before she started working on her own terms, Annamarie, a physical therapist assistant, was thinking about leaving the industry. Finding shifts via ShiftKey reminded her why she was passionate about healthcare when she got started:
“I've encountered amazing people that are talented in so many ways, and it made me reframe and question, ‘Why did you think about getting out of healthcare?’”
Annamarie also believes setting her own schedule has made her more present for her patients: “The more on-demand work I did, the more I realized I put myself first during the day so I could be open and a better person for my patients.”
These apps are also helping facilities get the coverage they need, when they need it.
Austin says: “Every facility that I go to that uses ShiftKey has the help they need, and that's how every place should be.”
The challenges and benefits of working as an independent professional
As an independent professional, there’s more freedom and more responsibility than with a traditional healthcare role.
Candice, who uses the ShiftKey app to complete shifts around her job, recommends networking and building relationships across facilities.
“I go to one veterans home a lot, so, the scheduler will call and say, ‘Hey Candice, I have open shifts this weekend; what do you have open?’ They’ll wait for me to bid on the shifts, which is perfect.”
Annamarie has started thinking about work a little differently since she’s transitioned to working on her own terms: “Full-time isn't steady either. Once I embraced that and realized that the work is always there, I just don't know necessarily where it's coming from, I just felt more refreshed and balanced.”
Candice, who has been a CNA for 13 years, creates balance by varying the kinds of shifts she picks up: “You just have to learn how to fluctuate it. I work at a hospice, and I'm still able to pick up shifts on the side using the ShiftKey app.”
How to manage stress and develop a self-care routine when working as an independent professional
The advice on how to create work-life balance as an independent professional is consistent with the advice on how to create work-life balance in general. The approach can be summarized by three words: plan, prioritize and pause.
Plan
Working as an independent professional requires the management of relationships and commitments with many facilities at once, which makes planning an essential skill.
Prioritize
Most people have competing priorities. Evaluating yours and ranking them in order of importance can help clarify what’s most meaningful to you.
Pause
On busy days, pauses may only consist of a few moments of meditation or non-sleep deep rest. (Non-sleep deep rest, or NSDR, is a practice of meditation with additional benefits.) Longer pauses are necessary as well: Taking time off is a critical factor in maintaining mental health (Psychology Today).
Since flexibility is a hallmark of working on your own terms, you get to decide when you need to take some time for yourself. That flexibility is one of the reasons Gloria uses ShiftKey: “I could decide I don't want to work this whole week from Monday to Friday. And guess what? I manage my own schedule with ShiftKey versus being fixed to a place whereby I have a specific schedule that I can't get out of.”
Building a world where healthcare professional burnout is no longer the norm
Overcoming healthcare professional burnout requires a new way of approaching the work itself.
By finding shifts on the ShiftKey app, independent professionals like Gloria, Austin, Candice and Annamarie are empowering themselves. In the process, they’re filling a critical need for skilled healthcare workers across the U.S.
Even so, it’s clear that healthcare professional burnout is a systemic issue that policymakers, facilities and professionals will have to address together. If you’re dealing with burnout, visit The National Academy of Medicine to find key resources that may help. And if you’re looking for the flexibility to create your own schedule and work in facilities you prefer, consider the ShiftKey app.
