There was no roadmap for what nurses endured in 2020. No clinical algorithm could prepare us for what came next. The pandemic did more than overwhelm our hospitals. It shattered the internal scaffolding that had kept so many of us functioning.

As the world clapped and moved on, we were left in the aftermath. Holding not just the memories of lost patients, but the haunting silence that followed. We became skilled in saving others, even as we quietly bled out behind our own name badges.

It was in that silence, commuting nearly 300 miles a week as a front-line COVID nurse, while simultaneously trying to complete my graduate degree that I began to ask a deeper question:
What happens when the caregivers are the ones who need saving?

That question became the foundation of my research. Thousands of nurses responded to my survey, and the results were devastating, but not surprising. Over 70% identified as the walking wounded. Moral injury. Physical trauma. Suicidality. Emotional collapse. These weren’t isolated stories. This was a collective diagnosis.

And it became clear: Nurses are my patient population now.

The Ritual Nurse was born not out of strategy, but necessity.
It is a platform, a movement, a lifeline for the nurses who never stopped showing up. It is equal parts sacred and scientific. Each episode of the podcast, each skill, each tool I share—it all comes from this truth: we cannot heal the system until we start healing ourselves.

We’ve spent a full season learning how to do just that.

We’ve explored trauma-informed care for the nurse, not just the patient.
We’ve developed DBT-inspired skills that fit into 12-hour shifts and 30-second breaks.
We’ve reclaimed ritual, not as performance, but as protection.

Ritual, for us, is a structure. A system of healing when everything else falls apart.

It’s how we code for our own emergencies.
How we IV PUSH through the overwhelm.
How we use T.R.A.U.M.A.-C.A.R.E. to debrief the soul-level damage of a profession that refuses to rest.
How we organize our lives with THE LIST, not just to get things done, but to stay alive.

This is not content. This is clinical. This is deeply personal.

I am a nurse, an educator, a mother, a trauma survivor, doctoral candidate… you name it. I’m almost finished with my Family Nurse Practitioner and Doctor of Nursing Practice degrees. And still, my most important title will always be: healer of the healers.

I don’t do this work to feed an algorithm. I do it because someone has to.

Because behind every Instagram reel about nurse burnout, there is a real person deciding whether or not they can make it another shift.

Because nursing influencers may be going viral—but nurses are still dying.

And because the same organizations that give endless lip service to “resilience” and “mental health” have offered little more than hashtags while we drown.

I’ve had enough of the performative allyship.

So I built The Ritual Nurse for the real ones.

For the ones holding trauma in their tissues.
For the ones who still flinch at alarms.
For the ones raising children while raising patient satisfaction scores.
For the ones who feel invisible—even while saving lives.

This is not a brand.
This is not a wellness trend.
This is a reclamation of humanity inside a profession that often forgets we are human.

And it is only just beginning.

Season Two will bring new skills, deeper trauma recovery, guest voices from the field, and the long-awaited launch of the R.I.S.E. Curriculum: Resilience, Insight, Strength, Empowerment.

It will also unveil The Ritual Nurse Collective, a private, protected space for those who are ready to do the deep work. Rituals, skill sessions, community healing, and personal access to everything I can teach—outside the reach of mainstream platforms.

And for those who’ve listened, shared, or told me their story—you’re why this exists. You’re the flame I keep tending, even when the world goes dark.

So here it is. The truth in its clearest form:

If nurses don’t start putting themselves first, we will not survive.
And if we don’t survive, no one else will either.

This is the era of the healed healer.

And The Ritual Nurse is where we rise.