Nurses Back To Health

(featured on CBS2 News This Morning)

Like so many other life altering inventions and services, Nurses Back to Health was born out of the ashes of the Covid crises. When the Pandemic hit, nurses were already stretched thin. Facing record high rates of burnout (50% of nurses leave bedside nursing 2 years after graduating), nurses have been reporting high rates combative patient episodes, making their workplaces unsafe, while nurses continue to fight for safer patient ratios, and uninterrupted lunch periods to be able to recharge, and mental health coping for the pain of losing the patients they learn to care deeply for...Hospital bedside nursing has never been for the faint of heart. 

Covid poured gas on the fires that were already lit. Overworked, feeling invisible to bottom line focused managements, nurses were unceremoniously thrown into a new crisis environment; caring for patients in a pandemic environment with no appropriate personal protective equipment allocation, where visitors were banned, and patients were no longer allowed the comfort of their own family or friends at their bedside, adding additional emotional work for nurses; to fill the loneliness and isolation experienced by patients, and the fear and uncertainty of families who were now constantly calling for up dates. More work, more pressure, same 12-13 hour shifts. Moreover, nurses in hard hit areas were finding themselves facing a high death toll of patients. 

We watched in sadness as the stories came through on social media- first hand accounts of nurses crying their truths, asking for help, not knowing how to process. We watched as the suicide rate for frontline doctors and nurses went up. As nurses cried about losing colleagues to covid, as they talked about the anxiety of working during a pandemic, caring for covid patients without the adequate protective equipment. The business teams in hospitals did not seem to have the bandwidth to help, and we new we needed to do something. 

Sara Well- a frontline nurse and CEO at DropStat, LLC reached out to Esther Levy, CEO at Ujjayi and trained mental health healer, discussed the problems, drew up a solution, and put together a small free platform for nurses. Nurses Back to Health answers the age old question: Who will care for the caregivers? The platform focuses on a strategy and solution based approach focusing on creating the internal framework for optimal functioning in dysfunctional and high stress environments. The platform provides a space to get together with trained mental health professionals and focus on mental health. As of today, the platform has grown to more than 350 members, with weekly zoom meetings, talks, open forums and meet ups. The goal of the program is to increase the number of classes and the number of involved mental health coaches, so that better mental health coping is available to all nurses at the touch of a screen.

Ujjayi has sponsored 100's of Salves for Nurses on the front lines. 
@nursesbacktohealth