Nurses have bad days just like everyone. Many people have thoughts about how to combat nursing burnout. There have been studies, conversations, symposiums. Speaking to someone who has experienced burnout helps to clarify the issue and a possible solution. allnurses.com’s Content and Community Director, Mary Watts, BSN, RN recently spoke with Anna Rodriguez, BSN, RN, PCCRN, CCRN at the AACN/NTI Conference about her journey through nursing burnout. Anna explained that she went thru an experience approximately 3 to 4 years ago when she was in the right place at the right time and became a unit manager of a 10-bed CVICU. She held this position for two years and during these two years they had many changes including starting a new ECMO program, launched new and different technology and it just was a perfect storm. Anna got to the point where she went back to bedside via travel nursing. Currently, Anna is working in endoscopy. She had started a blog, The Burnout Book to collect her thoughts and to share with others as well as to bolster her spirits. This is based on the original burnout book that was a little journal she started writing during her second year of nursing school. She commented, “It’s important to remember our “why” in nursing. It's the little things that matter. Now I’m a burnout survivor.” Any human being will have bad days. As a nurse its important to develop a skill set to deal with bad days. However, when you have moral residue, it becomes harder to see that perhaps it's just a bad day versus actual burnout. From the ANA, moral distress is defined as: Understanding and Addressing Moral Distress - American Nurses Association Signs and symptoms that can be indicative of moral residue include: Physically, and emotionally exhausted Dreading the job that you used to like Less connection with your job Chronic illness All of this can lead to burnout. Early recognition is the key. Possible solutions: Talk with someone, perhaps a trusted co-worker Acknowledge your feelings Employee assistance program Counseling if your mental health is endangered Changing jobs, shifts or specialties Mary then asked if there are some personality traits that make a person either more prone to burnout or more resilient to this phenomena? Anna answered that in general people that are empathetic can have more issues with less resilience and this describes most nurses. As nurses, we have to find the balance between being compassionate and caring and separating ourselves from these feelings. They also discussed compassion fatigue which is when you take on the feelings of others to the detriment of yourself. Anna’s advice identifies that the goal is to be more resilient. When you feel a burnout moment, you need to get out of it. However, don’t make huge lifestyle changes at the moment. You need to resolve the immediate stressor but once the stress lessens then you can rethink the situation and look at your life to see if you need to make big changes. All nurses experience this to some degree but its how you handle it. Don’t quit nursing, find your spark, there are a lot of different ways to be a nurse!