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-Mental Health
International Nurses Day and Mental Health Awareness Week: Why This Moment Matters
How fitting that International Nurses Day and Mental Health Awareness Week sit side by side this year. If there was ever a moment to pause and reflect on the emotional weight carried by those in healthcare, particularly nurses, it’s now.
Last week, I opened a senior leadership workshop by explaining “why I am the way I am.” Not because I wanted to channel Gloria Gaynor (tempting as that was), but because we were working with a company called Insights Discovery, to better understand ourselves and one another; how we show up, how we’re perceived, and how we can work more effectively as a team.
Here’s a piece of my story.
I like to think I’m relatively self-aware, I know I can come across as blunt or overly direct at times. But these traits, while sometimes misunderstood, are rooted in something deeper: a strong sense of justice, a big heart, and a relentless commitment to doing what’s right. They’ve helped me get things done and, frankly, they’ve helped me survive.
Looking back, I probably transitioned into management too soon after qualifying as a nurse. Most people would say it’s because I’m bossy (and I won’t argue that), but the truth runs deeper. I found it emotionally overwhelming to stay in a purely clinical role. I took too much home with me. I didn’t sleep. I cried. I replayed moments of loss, trauma, and heartbreak. I was proud of the wins – the moments of joy and recovery – but they were fleeting. The hard moments lingered.
I know I’m not alone in that. And it’s not just nurses who carry this burden, it’s every person in healthcare. The CEOs. The porters. The healthcare assistants. The ward clerks. This emotional weight is distributed across the system but rarely spoken about. Are we seen as weak if we admit it affects us? If we cry? If we need to step back?
I’ve often been the one to step in when my own family faced illness; “You’re the nurse,” they’d say, “You’re used to this.” But being used to tragedy doesn’t mean I don’t feel it. I’ve simply built a wall of resilience around myself to cope, a defence mechanism many in healthcare will recognise.
Author and former doctor Adam Kay once referred to himself as a “secondary victim” after a traumatic experience in practice. That term struck a deep chord with me. It perfectly describes how many of us feel: affected not just by what happens to our patients, but by what we witness, absorb, and carry silently. After 27 years in and around the NHS – as a nurse, a manager, a relative, a patient – the emotional scars are real, and lasting.
That’s why this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week theme – the power of community – resonates so strongly. For me, my community is my friends, most of whom also work in healthcare. They are my lifeline. We talk. We laugh. We remember. We give each other space. We don’t need to explain; we just get it. And together, we advocate for each other, for our profession, and for the people we serve.
To every nurse on International Nurses Day, and to everyone in health and social care, thank you. You are extraordinary. What you do matters more than words can express. The good far outweighs the bad, even when it doesn’t feel like it. So be there for each other. Talk. Listen. Laugh. Cry. Ask for help. Take a different path if you need to. Most importantly, never forget that looking after yourself isn’t selfish, it’s essential.
You are not alone. And you are appreciated, today and every day.