By Glenn Llopis

If you were highly skilled and dedicated but felt your value was tied only to productivity, how motivated and energized would you feel? This is the reality nurses face every day—a profession built on care and compassion, yet often constrained by systems that fail to invest in their well-being. They are seen as cost centers rather than an investment in quality, safety and profitable outcomes.

According to Indeed’s Global Work Wellbeing Report 2024, they reveal the top three factors that help people feel energized at work:

1. Getting excited about the work they do (47%)

2. Feeling inspired to do their best (41%)

3. Being challenged at work (39%)

Through years of working with leaders and nurses in healthcare, I’ve encountered a common thread—which I’ve also observed across other industries. Leaders want their teams to be excited, inspired, and challenged. Yet, few managers know how to create environments conducive to these feelings. It’s not a lack of intention but rather a lack of knowing how to create those environments.

My firm’s research shows 89% of managers strongly agree their mindsets were never developed to enable agility, resilience, resourcefulness, transparency, and authenticity. Compounding the issue, 71% of managers strongly agree their workplaces impose unnecessary stress due to conflicting expectations.

How does this data specifically appear at work for nurse leaders? Here is a snapshot after conducting hundreds of 1:1 interviews:

- Lack of Voice: Nurse leaders expressed often feeling that their voices are unheard and their ideas unvalued, leading to disengagement and fear of speaking up due to the perception that nothing will change.

- Insufficient Celebration of Achievements: There is a lack of recognition for smaller accomplishments, which diminishes morale and the feeling of pride in individual and team contributions.

- Pressure to Conform: The current work environment is more focused on employees adapting to fit the company rather than the company shaping itself to empower its employees, which stifles creativity and growth.

- Resistance to "That's the Way We've Always Done It" mindsets: This attitude is exhausting and prevents nurses from utilizing their full range of skills.

- Lack of Communication: There is insufficient face-to-face interaction and communication between departments, preventing employees from building relationships and understanding others' roles.

- Lack of Employee Engagement: Some staff members feel disconnected and are only present for “a paycheck,” which leads to reduced motivation and contribution to team efforts.

- Restrictive Mission Statements: Employees may feel boxed in by rigid mission statements that don't account for individual skills or creativity, limiting their willingness to actively contribute to the organization’s growth.

The result? A draining system that saps energy instead of fueling it.

What does this look like in-action for nurses?

The Energy-Draining System Nurses Face

At the 2023 Healthcare in the Age of Personalization Summit, Rebekah Marsh, a clinical nurse educator at Harborview Medical Center, highlighted the challenges nurses confront daily.

“We go into the profession expecting to care,” Marsh said. “Seeing positive impacts in our care is often our measure of self-worth. But nurses have to do things that don’t seem to make sense because that’s how the system operates. It’s hard to find the voice to push back or accept that the system can’t change.”

Marsh shared an example many nurses will recognize. At her hospital, every patient’s weight must be recorded at 6 a.m. A nurse might use their clinical judgment to decide that waking a patient would do more harm than good. But skipping this step means doctors rounding early won’t have the information they need, potentially delaying the patient’s treatment—and even their discharge. This rigid scheduling leaves little room for autonomy, creating a chain reaction of stress and dissatisfaction.

These systemic inefficiencies don’t just frustrate nurses; they drain their energy and passion.

The Big Picture Problem (Opportunity)

Healthcare economist Dr. Olga Yakusheva, a professor of nursing at the John Hopkins school of nursing, attributes much of the issue to the healthcare industry’s focus on quantity over quality. Revenues are tied to patient turnover, not care outcomes. “Humans are not labor,” said Dr. Yakusheva. “They are the intellectual core of our human life. When we stop thinking of people as bodies and work hours, and we start thinking about them as individuals, that’s when you are on the path to seeing things differently.”

Organizations that fail to invest in nurses are now seeing the repercussions, Dr. Yakusheva explained. “There is not a nursing shortage—there is a shortage of jobs nurses are willing to take.” With growing opportunities elsewhere, nurses are leaving environments that undervalue them to seek employers who prioritize their well-being.

According to Dr. Robert Roncska, former commander of a nuclear-powered submarine and leader of the Navy's largest submarine squadron, who now helps healthcare organizations strengthen culture and achieve high-reliability outcomes; “Trust is a vital yet often overlooked element in the relationships between nursing leaders and their teams. When leaders treat nurses as mere objects or fail to align their words with their actions, the foundation of trust begins to crumble.”

During my interview with Dr. Roncska, he mentioned the work of John Cook and Toby Wall titled, New Work Attitude Measures of Trust, Organizational Commitment and Personal Need Non-Fulfilment, where they define trust as "the extent to which one is willing to ascribe good intentions to and have confidence in the words and actions of other people. To build and sustain this trust, leaders must lead with love—taking time to genuinely listen, offer heartfelt recognition, and consistently honor their commitments. Trust is not only the cornerstone of effective leadership but also a crucial factor in fostering employee well-being in today’s healthcare environment.”

What Can Leaders Do to Make a Change?

For healthcare leaders, rethinking energy starts by breaking down silos. Marsh emphasized the need for greater collaboration between disciplines.

“Nurses and doctors mostly only see their own perspective and spend most of their time with each other, even though we all work in the same building,” Marsh said. “We need more partnership and discussion across the disciplines.” Regular, meaningful interactions between teams can deepen mutual understanding and improve decision-making.

Creating energy-rich environments also means addressing culture. Bonnie Barnes, co-founder of The DAISY Foundation, champions fostering gratitude. Her nonprofit allows families, patients, and colleagues to recognize nurses through formal nominations for The DAISY Award®. But Barnes sees this as more than awards—it’s about creating everyday moments of appreciation.

“For example,” Barnes said, “a nurse leader, during rounds, can go to a nurse and say, ‘Thank you for what you’ve done for this patient. Let me tell you what they said about you.’” Meaningful recognition energizes people by reminding them of their value and their specific impact.

A Call to Action

Improving nurses’ energy and engagement isn’t just a moral imperative—it’s essential for retaining a skilled workforce. Organizations must shift from viewing productivity as a numbers game to seeing nurses as the compassionate professionals they are. Leaders can start by adopting a mindset that fosters agility and autonomy, promoting interdisciplinary collaboration, and embedding gratitude into daily practices.