Many hospitals do not want to implement the meaningful changes that reduce burnout ("Burnout Research at a Crossroads," Viewpoint, May). They would rather academics continue to study the issue into the ground. Flexible hours, mentoring, adequate staffing, and the like cost money and divert resources.

Nurse leaders are often used symbolically to represent nurses, but at the executive level they are either beholden to other interests, stuck in their own biases and assumptions, or too caught up in their own agenda for change to be open to other voices.

I think the net result will be that bedside nursing will increasingly be a path to somewhere else rather than a goal in itself. Nurses will stay a few years, leave, and find an adjacent profession, creating a void in seniority and experience. We are already seeing that, but eventually it will become the norm.

Paula L., via LinkedIn