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Spring is supposed to be the hopeful part of the year. Warmer weather, longer days, maybe a shift that ends on time. And yet here we are — reading a new survey that confirms what you already feel in your bones: it's getting harder again. Not pandemic-level harder, but a quiet grinding down of the things that made this job feel worth it.
Good news: you are not alone, and this newsletter has receipts. Also: a fake nurse got sentenced, a robot went viral, and someone got convicted for something involving a diaper that we truly cannot believe went all the way to trial. Let's get into it.
⚕ This weeks vitals
Job Satisfaction
47%
of nurses satisfied at work
- down from 55%
- Nurse.org 2026
Assaulted at Work
27%
of nurses physically assaulted in 2025
- most didn't report
- Nurse.org survey
Likely to Leave
43%
say they may leave the bedside within a year
- up from 2025
- Nurse.org 2026
📋
The Handoff
🔥
Big story
The 3-Year Recovery Just Reversed. Here's the 2026 State of Nursing.
The good news from the past few years? Consider it partially unraveled. Nurse.org's 2026 State of Nursing Survey — 2,090 nurses, five years of data — found job satisfaction dropped eight points since last year, from 55% back to 47%. Forty-three percent say they're likely to leave the bedside within a year. Nearly one in four say they might leave the profession entirely — a 50% jump in just twelve months. The causes aren't surprising: staffing, financial pressure, workplace violence, and AI arriving with no training or nurse input attached. And tucked in: 27% of nurses were physically assaulted at work in 2025. Most didn't report it.
😤
Oh wow
A Brooklyn Nurse Was Killed by a Hospital Ambulance. The Driver Didn't Stop.
Cherry Cayetano Sobel, 44, a nurse and mother of two, was crossing a street in Midwood, Brooklyn at 6:40 a.m. on April 2nd when she was struck by a Maimonides Medical Center ambulance making a left turn. The ambulance kept going. Witnesses ran to help; a city bus driver tried to chase it down. She was taken to Maimonides — the hospital that owned the ambulance — where she died. The two EMTs have been suspended. NYPD believes the driver may not have realized he hit anyone. No charges filed. Investigation ongoing.
😬
Heads up
Your Hospital's Epic System May Be Sharing Patient Data with the SSA
Health systems using Epic have begun sharing EHR data with the Social Security Administration to help verify disability claims. Nurses and patient advocates are raising questions about privacy, consent, and scope. Early and developing — but if you're on Epic, worth knowing. We'll keep watching this one.
🪧
On the Clock
⏱ Still going
Cayuga Medical Nurses Filed Federal Labor Charges — Surveillance, Retaliation, Stalled Talks
Nurses at Cayuga Medical Center in Ithaca, NY voted 82% to unionize with CWA in January. Since then, they allege management surveilled a nurse distributing union flyers, retaliated by contacting another nurse's second employer, prohibited union discussions, and stalled contract negotiations. Oh, and closed the East Campus Cancer Center without notifying the union. Cayuga United-CWA — 350-plus RNs — has filed formal unfair labor practice charges with the NLRB. Cayuga Health denies the allegations and says it's in ongoing dialogue. The NLRB process plays out from here.
💪
Inspiring
Nursing Is One of the Most Reliable Paths to Middle-Class Stability Right Now
As economic anxiety reshapes the job market, nursing keeps showing up as one of the few careers that reliably delivers — pay, security, benefits, advancement. Median RN salary: $93,600. The profession is also landing on AI-resistant jobs lists because it requires on-site judgment, emotional connection, and physical presence. What you do is hard to replace, and the market is starting to say so out loud.
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🩹 Saved and Screwed
🏆 Win
She Lost Her License After a Competitor Filed a False Complaint. She Fought Back.
Stephanie Skipper, a nurse offering lymphatic massage services, had her license suspended after a competitor filed a complaint alleging she was practicing beyond her scope. After a prolonged fight through the licensing board, she was vindicated. The case raises real concerns about how boards handle complaints and how much a single bad-faith report can derail a career before anyone determines if it's even valid. If you've ever worried about your license, this one's worth your full attention.
😤
Oh wow
She Wasn't a Nurse. She Treated 4,486 Patients Anyway. Now She's on Probation.
Autumn Bardisa, 29, posed as a licensed RN at AdventHealth Palm Coast for a year and a half — using another nurse's license number — and treated 4,486 patients before a credential review caught her. Fired, arrested, and this week sentenced to five years' probation. She avoided prison. She has to write an apology letter to the nurse whose license she stole — and forfeited the nursing license she earned while out on bail. She went to nursing school, passed her boards, and then had to hand it back. To every nurse who grinded through clinicals and NCLEX: we see you.
🧠 Brain Trust
📋 Need to know
Ambient Listening Is the Tech Nurses Are Actually Warming Up To
AONL 2026 wrapped in Chicago, and the standout technology wasn't AI chatbots or virtual nursing — it was ambient listening. Northwestern Medicine's key finding was almost refreshingly obvious: nurse involvement from the start of implementation leads to better usability, fewer workflow barriers, and more accurate documentation. If your hospital is piloting ambient listening and nobody's asked for your input, that's worth flagging to your manager.
📋 Need to know
A New AI Copilot Built for Nurses Just Plugged Into Your EHR
Ambience Healthcare launched "Chart Chat" — the first EHR-integrated AI copilot designed specifically for nurses, built to assist with documentation from inside existing systems. Whether it reduces charting time or just adds a new thing to learn depends entirely on implementation. But designing for nurses rather than adapting physician tools is at least a step in the right direction.
😬
Heads up
A Patient Died in the ICU. A Teledoctor Was in Charge. The Family Is Suing.
A dental student died while under the care of a remote physician managing the case via video in a Connecticut hospital ICU. The family is suing, raising questions about what coverage is appropriate when the attending isn't physically present. For bedside nurses in settings where telemedicine is filling coverage gaps, this case is worth following. The legal and clinical standards are still being defined.
🧪 Quick Hits
- Hospitals are recruiting high schoolers into nursing pipelines — partnering directly with students before college apps. Ambitious. We'll see if it sticks. (Yahoo News)
- A hospital CEO said he'd replace radiologists with AI right now if he could. Out loud. To a reporter. File under: things you'll be thinking about. (Nurse.org)
- Health plans say they're voluntarily reducing prior authorization requirements. Cautiously optimistic. Or skeptical. Depends which unit you work on. (AHIP)
- Several doctors and nurses in Southern California were arrested in a healthcare fraud investigation. Details limited, investigation ongoing. (Yahoo News)
- A South Jersey hospital employee is accused of stealing millions in medical supplies over several years. The supply cart at your hospital thanks you for not doing this. (ABC6)
- 36% of Americans use social media as a primary health info source, per Pew. Your patients are absolutely looking up their diagnosis on TikTok before you walk in. (Becker's / Pew)
- DaVita and BAYADA are building their own nursing pipelines rather than waiting on the national workforce to catch up. Worth watching as a model. (Modern Healthcare)
- Healthcare worker COVID and flu vaccination rates are dropping. Worth knowing as respiratory season transitions. (MedPage Today)
🛒 The Supply Cart
🤯
Wait, what
Yes, This Went to Trial. Yes, a Jury Decided. Yes, This Week.
Sharandal Mitchell, 40, an LPN contracted through ShiftKey, was convicted this week of assault after smearing a soiled adult diaper on a coworker's face at a nursing home in Medina, Tennessee. It started when she was reported for refusing to care for a patient — was asked to leave, refused, became erratic, and grabbed a used diaper. Guilty of assault with offensive contact, a Class B misdemeanor. Sentencing in May. We genuinely don't know what to do with this one either.
👯 The Buddy System
Forward this email to
3 nurse friends who need a laugh (or a stiff drink). We're picking one reader this week to treat to a serious caffeine fix on us. (Because hospital coffee doesn't count).
🚪 The Discharge Lounge
The robot that broke nursing Twitter. A video of Unitree's G1 humanoid robot moving wheelchairs, adjusting beds, and restocking ward supplies at a Chinese hospital went viral this week. Price tag: ~$16,000. Nursing scored 67.9 out of 100 on "safe from AI displacement" in a recent survey — nearly the top spot. The robot can adjust a bed. It cannot assess a patient, advocate for them, or handle what happens in the next five minutes when something goes sideways. Seoul Economic Daily
Butt microneedling. We have questions. A dermatologist weighed in on whether microneedling your posterior yields a more youthful situation back there. MedPage Today covered it — under their "Pop Medicine" section. If a patient hasn't asked you about this yet, give it a week. MedPage Today
May your badge beep on the first swipe and your parking spot be close. You've more than earned it this week.
— inScrubbs
See you next week
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