Career Voices: What Nurses Say About Their Work
A collection of individual perspectives from registered nurses, curated from public articles, surveys, forums, and news reports. These are unedited voices – some love the work, some left it, most feel both. Read quickly and form your own impression.
Sources are linked for each quote. Most are from Canadian nurses; a few US statistics are included where Canadian equivalents don’t exist. The experience is broadly similar though pay scales and systems differ.
“This Is Why I Do It”
“Working in a hospital often means you’re dealing with people having the worst day of their life. Helping those people is exactly what attracted me to the field.” – Perry Bhaskaran, Ontario ER nurse
Source: Maclean’s – “Nursing Crisis”
“I feel more fulfilled than ever knowing I am providing comfort and understanding to a population that needs all the help they can get.” – Naveed Hussain, psychiatric nurse, McGill University Health Centre
Source: CBC – “I became a mental health nurse despite my doubts”
“In helping my patients, I feel grounded both personally and professionally for the first time in my life.” – Naveed Hussain
“My pursuit of a career in nursing was interwoven with a desire to help people in times of illness and to contribute to my community with a sense of purpose and passion.” – April Fox, RN
Source: Canadian Nurse – “From nurse to patient”
“I am proud to be a nurse and embrace the lessons I have learned from the other side of the health-care relationship.” – April Fox, RN, after experiencing the healthcare system as a patient
“32% of RNs and LPNs cited ‘helping people / making a difference’ as the single biggest reward of their career.” – Medscape Nurse Career Satisfaction Report 2024 (n=7,723)
Source: Advisory.com – “Nurses’ career satisfaction, in 4 charts”
“Most Nurses Don’t Regret It”
“92% of nurses are glad they went into the profession.” – Medscape Nurse Career Satisfaction Report 2024
“73% said they would choose nursing again if given the opportunity for a do-over.” – Medscape 2024 (n=7,723 US nurses)
“69% said they love being a nurse. Job satisfaction rose 64% from 2022 to 2024.” – Nurse.org State of Nursing Report 2024
“The Pay Starts Fine, Then Stalls”
“Starting pay rate of $33 per hour is amazing… But when you realize you’re only ever going to see a 60-cent per hour increase… it isn’t exactly motivating.” – Perry Bhaskaran, on Ontario nursing wages
“You are compensated per nursing visit that you accomplish in a day, and in order to make a living wage, you then have to see more people. So essentially, they normalize the need to see so many patients in order to be able to earn the paycheque you need to support yourself and your family.” – Sharon Hunter, RPN, 15 years in home care, Ontario
“84% of departing nurses cite wages as the primary reason for leaving.” – WeRPN survey of Ontario RPNs
“The Staffing Crisis Is Real”
“It was common to have two nurses for four trauma-bay rooms, nine monitoring critical acute rooms and psych rooms.” – Perry Bhaskaran, Ontario ER
“Our ER felt like a warzone. We had patients in hallway stretchers testing positive for COVID.” – Perry Bhaskaran
“Better staffing surpassed even higher salary as the one thing that would have the most positive impact.” – CFNU National Nurses Survey (n=5,595)
“Two in three say their workplace is regularly over capacity, including 68.5% of respondents in Ontario.” – CFNU National Nurses Survey 2025 (n=4,736)
“We’ve experienced a lot of stressors in the health-care system and on nurses in general that have just compounded over months and years. Because those things have gone untended, there have been so many nurses that have just left the profession that now we are facing a shortage like I’ve not felt during my 15 years of nursing.” – Sharon Hunter, RPN, Ontario
“The Shifts Break You Down”
“No one was able to eat, drink or have a break for a full 12-hour shift.” – Perry Bhaskaran
“12-hour days, burnout and lower wages: Ontario nurse says staff shortage getting worse.” – CTV News headline, November 2024
“Some of these nurses are on the road at eight o’clock in the morning and don’t get home till nine or 10 o’clock at night.” – Sharon Hunter, on home care nursing in Ontario
“If you’re working 16-hour days, five to six days a week, there’s no future in that. It’s not sustainable over the long term.” – Hugh Gillis, VP, Nova Scotia Government and General Employees Union
“Burnout Is the Norm, Not the Exception”
“93% reported symptoms of burnout.” – CFNU National Nurses Survey 2024 (n=5,595)
“30% dissatisfied with their career choice; 40% intend to leave or retire.” – CFNU 2024
“55% cite job stress and burnout as the reason.” – CFNU 2024
“44% of nurses report at least one near-miss or patient safety incident within the last six months.” – CFNU National Nurses Survey 2025
“Moral Distress Haunts You”
“I feel the dread every day when I get up in the morning, not knowing if we’re going to have more patients to see than the day is going to allow us to see and thinking about how I’m going to triage and how I have to decide between people who are going to get the care today and who might get the care tomorrow.” – Sharon Hunter, RPN, Ontario
“I come home and at the end of the day. I’m devastated that I left the patient and there’s nothing else I can do, and the only option is for them to go back to the hospital if they feel worse.” – Sharon Hunter
“Now… the only scene I can guarantee is chaos, and not going on my breaks most times.” – Birgit Umaigba, RN, critical care and emergency, Greater Toronto Area
“It’s just hard. It’s very difficult.... People are either quitting, breaking down, or looking for other options.” – Birgit Umaigba, RN
“Some Nurses Found a Way Out (Without Leaving Nursing)”
“I was granted little to no vacation time. So I dropped to a casual position and started travel nursing.” – Nicole Horechuk, RN, Sydney, Nova Scotia
“If I wasn’t doing travel nursing, I wouldn’t be able to do this job at the bedside at all. I would be feeling too burned out.” – Nicole Horechuk
“It’s about work-life balance, and if you push people hard enough, they’re simply going to go elsewhere.” – Hugh Gillis, VP, NSGEU
“Mental Health Nursing Is a Different World”
“It forced me to confront the stigmas I wasn’t aware I held about mental health, even as a health-care professional.” – Naveed Hussain, 20-year clinical nurse who switched to psychiatry
“Working in mental health has taught me how to be a better communicator, empathizer and listener – whether that’s in the hospital, on the street or in my own home.” – Naveed Hussain
Psychiatric units across Quebec lack “the beds nor the resources to keep caring for them to the extent they need.” – Naveed Hussain, on system gaps even in mental health nursing
Note on These Voices
These quotes are curated from public sources and represent a range of experiences. They skew negative because people who are struggling are more likely to write about it online and more likely to be quoted in news stories. The CFNU survey data is rigorous but captures a workforce in crisis mode – the 93% burnout figure reflects a specific post-pandemic moment, not a permanent state of the profession.
The Medscape data tells a more nuanced story: even among nurses reporting burnout and workplace frustration, 92% are glad they entered the profession, and 73% would do it again. People can simultaneously be burned out AND find deep meaning in their work.
Important context for SpaceCat: The loudest voices here are from acute care – emergency departments, ICUs, and hospital wards with 12-hour rotating shifts. Community health nursing, public health, mental health, and home care operate on fundamentally different schedules (often Monday-to-Friday daytime hours) with different burnout profiles. SpaceCat’s shelter work connects directly to community and mental health nursing paths, which tend to offer more predictable schedules and the kind of relational, advocacy-oriented work she already does. These roles are underrepresented in public forums but may be the most relevant to her.