CLEWISTON -- The burnout from COVID-19 is a challenge facing nurses in healthcare and many are opting to leave the profession. However small-town healthcare settings are reinvigorating the love of nursing again.

Leslie Morris has been a nurse at large coastal hospitals for over eight years, however, with the pandemic and the challenges in healthcare she was looking for a way out. She took a travel nurse position at Hendry Regional Medical Center (HRMC) in September. What she found at the small hospital was beyond anything she could imagine: reviving her love for nursing.

Prior to her time at HRMC, Morris always felt the nursing provided by large hospitals made the patient just another number. “I was surprised by the community, compassion, and quality of care that is not only given here at Hendry Regional but expected, it restored my love of nursing,” stated Morris.

A recent study in the state of Florida found that one in four registered nurses left positions in the last year citing job dissatisfaction. It is expected if the trend continues that by the year 2035 there would be a shortage of almost 60,000 nurses in the state.

Hendry Regional is combating the workforce shortage through their current staff by reimaging nursing. “Our goal is to provide quality care to everyone we encounter, and we know that is done through our nursing staff. We empower our staff to go above and beyond the standard of care you would typically receive elsewhere. We want our nurses to treat each patient like it is their own family member,” said Dakota Redd, Chief Nursing Officer.

Nurses hired at Hendry Regional are friendly, knowledgeable leaders and critical thinkers which has led to a versatile nursing staff. “It is invigorating to wake up and want to come to work again every day, something that has been missing in my nursing career until I came to Hendry Regional. It isn’t just a place you work for, it is a family,” Morris said. The nurses at HRMC are the heart of healthcare and their oath is service to others. The uniqueness of rural nursing is the very intimate relationship built have within the community!