ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Nurse burnout is a real thing. 

What You Need To Know

  • BayCare Health System has been working to address nurses’ stress. It is now expanding a recently piloted program across all 16 of its acute-care hospitals in 2025

  • BayCare was one of four health systems in the nation selected by the American Nurses Foundation (ANF) for the pilot project, Nurse Well-Being: Building Peer and Leadership Support. It features the Stress First Aid (SFA) program, a peer-to-peer model originally designed for high-stress professions like the military and first responders

  • The program is partially funded by a grant of almost $500,000 received by BayCare from the ANF

  • Felicia Brown is an RN at St. Anthony's Hospital. She teaches the program and even used what she learned herself when dealing with personal stress following the 2024 back-to-back Tampa Bay hurricanes

The American Nursing Association reports almost two-thirds of nurses experience burnout, especially among younger nurses. 

To help with nurse burnout, the BayCare health system was chosen and decided to pilot the Nurse Well-Being: Building Peer and Leadership Support. This is through the American Nurses Foundation (ANF), and features the Stress First Aid (SFA) program. 

BayCare said SFA is a peer-to-peer model originally designed for high-stress professions like the military and first responders. 

After piloting the program for three years and seeing positive results, BayCare decided to launch the program across all 16 of its hospitals. 

Felicia Brown is an RN and works at St. Anthony’s Hospital in St. Petersburg. She has been a nurse for three years. Following last year’s back-to-back hurricanes, Brown admits she was feeling extra stressed. 

“I was very depressed, very quiet, was not my best self here at work to give the best education to my preceptor and nor was I my best self at home,” said Brown. 

Brown teaches this nurse well-being course, and said a colleague noticed she was showing signs of stress. 

“Sometimes it’s OK to be not OK, but when you don’t realize it in yourself, you have people who are there to be like, ‘Hey, I got your back,’” said Brown. 

The SFA system relies on colors to identify stress levels. 

“So a green is good. Yellow usually air ICU, they sit in the yellow,” said Ashley Melendez, an Advanced Patient Care Leader and RN at BayCare’s St. Anthony’s Hospital. “They like to kind of be on alert, but still good orange. You’re kind of hitting the mark where you might want to take a mental health day. Red. You should be at the doctor’s.”

“My famous saying is you can’t pour from an empty cup. So we have to make sure that we’re taking care of ourselves. Otherwise, we can’t take care of the public and other people.”

Brown is happy to say she is back in the yellow at work, and back in her home following the storms. 

“I’ve realized I thrive in the yellow where I can handle a little stress and still be normal and happy, but still get the job done and still be OK,” said Brown. 

BayCare was awarded a $500,000 grant by the ANF to expand the program through 2026.