When the Caregiver Needs Care: An ICU Nurse on Stepping Back and Riding 948 Miles

Editor’s note: This story discusses mental health and suicide prevention. Support resources are listed at the end of this article. Jenn Walsh is an ambassador for the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation and organized an independent fundraiser benefiting the Foundation. She is also developing Beyond the Bedside, a pre-launch company mentioned in this article.

As nurses, we’re trained to catch the warning signs. A subtle change in vitals, a patient who just seems “off.” We notice, and we act accordingly. What happens when the warning signs become our own?

When I sat down with Jenn Walsh, RN, her story hit close to home for me and so many other healthcare professionals. In our Nurse Converse podcast episode, Jenn opens up about her life in the Cardiac ICU, what made asking for help so hard, and what she learned on a 948-mile journey.

You can hear my full conversation with Jenn in the podcast episode below.

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Jenn Walsh has been a registered nurse since 2019. She started in med-surg, then moved to the cardiac surgery ICU, where she has spent most of her career. If you’ve never worked in the CVICU, these are the nurses caring for patients in the hours and days right after heart surgery, when every moment matters.

“It’s almost like the pinnacle of nursing,” Jenn told me during our episode. “It’s super challenging. You learn a lot. The learning curve is steep.” She also shared the line she always told her patients: “Good things happen slow, bad things happen fast.”

Even with all that intensity, Jenn loves the work. “What’s fun about it is that you are challenged … but it’s also an honor, a privilege to sit with families in their most vulnerable and scary moments.”

Earlier this year, Jenn stepped back from the bedside. She needed space to breathe again and to figure out who she is beyond the bedside.

That’s not an easy thing for any nurse to admit. As nurses, we work so hard for our letters, our credentials and our dream jobs, and having something interfere with that is heartbreaking.

Jenn is honest that it didn’t come naturally. “I had to learn the hard way to step back,” she said. “I credit my manager for having so much grace for me, but we had some difficult conversations, but stepping away was what was needed at the time.”

And it stung. “It took a shot at my ego, to be totally honest,” she said. “Over time, that got better.” Now she’s ready to go back. “I’m better, and I’m super stoked to get back,” she said.

Jenn wrote more about this in her Nurse.org essay, I Thought Stepping Away From Nursing Meant I Didn’t Belong.

Nursing school taught us how to push through and be RESILIENT! We skip the break, stay late to finish charting, and pick up the extra shift because the unit is short again. Somewhere along the way, needing help can start to feel like failing, even though we’d never say that about a patient or a coworker.

Jenn hopes that changes with the nurses coming up behind us:

“I hope that with the next generation of healthcare workers and nurses, we create better ways to communicate, for one, and we give them room and space to advocate for themselves, just like we advocate for our patients.”

Over the past year, Jenn has learned what helps her through hard seasons. “I think one of the keys to being your best self is having good community,” she said. Her closest friends are nurses, the people who understand a hard shift without needing the whole backstory.

If you’re feeling alone right now, start small! Text the coworker who always checks on you. Reconnect with a nursing school friend. Find an online space where nurses are real about the hard days.

From September 30 to October 2, 2026, Jenn took on The Pursuit, a journey from Madawaska, Maine, to Provincetown, Massachusetts. She planned to ride 926 miles, but ended up riding 948, with her mom driving the support vehicle the whole way. She rode between 13 and 15 hours a day, starting early in the morning and riding past sunset.

The goal was to talk openly about healthcare workers’ mental health and raise funds and awareness for the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation. The Foundation was started in memory of Dr. Lorna Breen, an emergency physician, and works to reduce burnout among healthcare professionals and protect their well-being. Jenn started on the last day of Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. The Foundation also works to remove intrusive mental health questions from licensing and credentialing applications, an issue Jenn ran into when she recently applied for a Texas nursing license. “They ask you questions about your mental health,” she said. “We wouldn’t do this with our patients.”

The Pursuit, day by day

• Day 1: 308.8 miles
• Day 2: 301.5 miles
• Day 3: 338.0 miles
• Total: 948.3 miles

What surprised her most was the response. “I put that GoFundMe out there for the ride and it was very vulnerable, like what’s written there,” she said. “And then I got so much support and I was like, I did not expect this.” Her fundraiser stays open through the end of November, and she plans to make The Pursuit an annual ride.

We tend to think perseverance means never stopping or slowing down. Jenn sees it differently. “What I’ve learned over this year is actually resilience is more about being flexible,” she said. Stepping back isn’t quitting. Sometimes it’s what lets you keep going.

“If I stop now, I’m gonna be able to go further.”

To Jenn, being flexible enough to change course shows self-awareness, not weakness. And she’s clear about how she wants this chapter to be remembered.

“I want my story to be a story of growth. It doesn’t stop. Nothing stops.”

If you’re struggling, you don’t have to carry it alone. In the US, call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. The Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation also shares resources made specifically for healthcare workers.

Follow Jenn on Instagram at @jlynnwalsh_ and check out her Beyond the Bedside website for more information.

Listen to the full conversation with Jenn Walsh on the Nurse Converse Podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

🤔 What has helped you through a hard season in nursing? Tell us in the comments below.