Burnout Isn’t Your Fault: Why Nurses Are Exhausted and What to Do About It
- Sarah Bergakker MSN, CRNA
- 11 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Let's Stop Pretending This Is Ok
Burnout Isn’t a Personal Failure—It’s a System Problem
If you’ve ever been to a MOOXLI retreat, you’ve heard me say it before:
Burnout is a system issue.
But let me say it again—louder, clearer, and without sugar-coating:
You are not the problem.
The system is.
I Built a Company Around Resilience—and I Still Burned Out
Even after all the self-compassion and boundary-setting tools I’ve practiced…
Even as the founder of MOOXLI…
Even after building an entire company around resilience, truth-telling, and recovery from compassion fatigue…
…I still found myself burned out again.
What Changed? The System Did—And Not by Accident
One of the hospital systems I contract with has changed.
Not randomly. Not subtly.
Deliberately.
And now? It’s a system built to break people.
Because that’s what some systems do:
They demand more from the ones who care more.
They reward silence and call it professionalism.
They run on the burnout of people who were never meant to be disposable.
Let’s stop pretending otherwise.
What Nurses Can Control (and What We Can’t)
Here’s what I know for sure:
🛑 I can’t fix a system that doesn’t want to be fixed.
✅ But I can decide how much of myself I’m willing to hand over to it.
My answer?
Not everything.
And not the best of me.
So I’ve made courageous changes.
Big ones. Audacious ones.
I’ve reclaimed my time, my energy, my heart.
And while those shifts take root, I’ve turned toward the systems I can control:
My body
My home
My rituals
My rest
Dear Nurse: Your Burnout Is Not Your Fault
For a moment, I blamed myself. I thought:
How did I let this happen again?
But then I remembered the truth:
Burnout isn’t a personal failure.
It’s the predictable outcome of a system that was never designed for your well-being.
If you’re in that space right now, I want you to know:
💙 You are not weak.
💙 You are not broken.
💙 And you are definitely not alone.
That deep weariness you’re carrying?
It’s not laziness.
It’s not failure.
It’s a call to return to yourself.
MOOXLI Isn’t About Escape—It’s About Returning
There is one spot left for the Fall 2025 MOOXLI Retreat.
But it’s not for the version of you that’s barely holding it together.
It’s for the version of you that’s ready to come undone—in the best way.
To reclaim your wildness.
To stop twisting yourself into shapes for systems that were never meant for you.
This isn’t a retreat to escape your life.
It’s a return to the one that’s been calling you all along.
🌀 20 CEs
🏞️ Mountains
🌊 A river that remembers
🫶 A community that sees you
And the tools to stop living on autopilot and start living on purpose.
With you in the fire and the rebuilding,
~Sarah
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