Whispering Hope International

Tag: San Diego

  • Confronting Workplace Violence Against Nurses

    Confronting Workplace Violence Against Nurses

    Safety on the Floor

    Nurses enter the profession to care, not to be hurt. Verbal abuse, threats, and physical assaults have made workplace violence a growing concern in hospitals. It is also an increasingly urgent issue in long-term care facilities across the country. 

    In high-stress environments like emergency departments, behavioral health units, and long-term care, emotions often run high. Patients and families may be in crisis, frightened, or frustrated. But none of that justifies nurses being treated as targets.

    Nurses in San Diego quietly share stories of being hit, kicked, or screamed at, of having their safety concerns dismissed as “part of the job.” Some have learned to normalize it. Others carry that fear into every shift: Will today be the day something really serious happens?

    New policies at the federal and state level are starting to address violence in healthcare settings. However, laws alone won’t heal the culture. Real change requires hospitals to take nurse safety as seriously as any other quality metric. The community also needs to understand what nurses are facing.

    How Whispering Hope International Can Help

    Whispering Hope International stands with nurses in saying clearly: violence is not part of the job.

    Our goals include:

    • Creating education campaigns that help the public understand how to interact respectfully with healthcare staff

    • Offering debrief spaces for nurses after violent incidents, so they’re not left to process trauma alone

    • Partnering with advocates and professional groups to support stronger protections and enforcement for healthcare workers

    Every nurse deserves to finish a shift and go home physically and emotionally safe. That’s a baseline, not a luxury.

  • Burnout, Moral Injury, and the Quiet Crisis in Nurse Mental Health

    Burnout, Moral Injury, and the Quiet Crisis in Nurse Mental Health

    Nursing has always been demanding, but the last few years have pushed the profession into new territory. Long before the word “burnout” became a workplace buzzword, nurses were already feeling its weight. They experienced emotional exhaustion and compassion fatigue. There was also a sense that no matter how hard they tried, it was never quite enough.

    The majority of nurses report feeling burned out, according to national surveys. They cite understaffing, high workloads, and emotional strain as the primary drivers. Many say they are caring for too many patients at once. They feel pressured to perform tasks outside their role just to keep the system afloat. 

    Here in San Diego, those numbers are not just data points. They’re seen in ICU nurses who haven’t fully processed what they witnessed during COVID surges. They’re evident in ED nurses who absorb trauma shift after shift. They appear in long-term care nurses who feel like they are carrying entire facilities on their backs.

    Stories from UC San Diego Health during the height of the pandemic depicted dedicated nurses. They became a “second family” to patients stuck in isolation. They held phones during final goodbyes and carried that weight home to their own families.  That level of emotional labor doesn’t disappear just because the headlines move on.

    The term “moral injury” has started to appear more in nursing conversations. It describes the pain that comes from knowing what your patients need. However, you might not have the time, staffing, or resources to provide it. For many nurses, that is the deepest wound of all.

    How Whispering Hope International Can Help

    Whispering Hope International believes nurse mental health is not optional—it’s essential.

    We envision:

    • Confidential support circles where nurses can speak freely about burnout and moral injury

    • Partnerships with mental health professionals familiar with healthcare trauma

    • Workshops on boundaries, resilience, and healing that don’t just tell nurses to “be more resilient” while nothing changes around them

    We cannot ask nurses to carry the emotional weight of the healthcare system alone. Our commitment is to stand beside them, listen without judgment, and help build pathways to healing.

  • Beyond the Applause: Inside San Diego’s Nurse Staffing Crisis

    Beyond the Applause: Inside San Diego’s Nurse Staffing Crisis

    If the pandemic taught us anything, it’s that a hospital can’t function without nurses. Across California—and here in San Diego County—nurses are sounding the alarm. They warn about chronic understaffing. It affects patient care and their own well-being.

    California is still the only state with a law that sets minimum nurse-to-patient ratios. On paper, that sounds like protection. In reality, nurses report that staffing often feels like a moving target. When units are short, nurses are asked to take on more patients. They cover extra roles and stretch themselves in ways that can feel unsafe for everyone involved. 

    Statewide, experts project that the nursing shortage will grow sharply in the next decade. This will happen if recruitment and retention don’t improve. Tens of thousands more nurses will be needed across California by 2033.  In San Diego, this pressure shows up as full waiting rooms and longer shifts. There’s also a constant scramble to fill holes in the schedule. This is especially an issue in high-acuity units.

    Recent strikes at Rady Children’s Hospital and Sharp HealthCare put these issues in the headlines. Nurses there have raised concerns about staffing levels and wage fairness. They are also worried about their ability to safely care for patients. This is particularly challenging in one of the most expensive cities in the country.  When nurses walk a picket line, they’re not just asking for more money. They’re asking for conditions that allow them to deliver the care they were trained to provide.

    For San Diego nurses, staffing is not an abstract policy question. It’s the feeling of walking into a shift already behind. One admission, one rapid response, or one code will stretch the team past its limits. It’s the moral weight of going home at the end of a 12-hour shift. You wonder whether you were truly able to be present for each patient.

    How Whispering Hope International Can Help

    Whispering Hope International is committed to creating spaces for nurses. They can speak honestly about staffing and safety. There is no fear of retaliation. Through listening circles, anonymous surveys, and collaboration with local partners, we aim to:

    • Amplify nurses’ voices in community discussions and policy advocacy

    • Provide workshops on advocacy skills and how to engage decision-makers

    • Connect nurses with mental health and peer-support resources when staffing stress becomes overwhelming

    The staffing crisis is not just “a nursing issue”—it affects every patient, every family, and every community. Our hope is to stand beside nurses as they work for change.

  • Visa Retrogression 101

    Visa Retrogression 101

    The Immigration Bottleneck Reshaping Filipino Nurse Careers

    San Diego hospitals rely on Filipino nurses more than ever, but immigration delays are choking the pipeline. Visa retrogression is a backlog in EB-3 employment-based visas. It means many qualified Filipino nurses wait years. They wait before they can start jobs they’ve already been offered.

    Behind every case number is a story. Parents are separated from children. Hospitals are left short-staffed. Communities miss the skilled professionals they desperately need.

    Some institutions are resorting to temporary visas like the H-1B as a stopgap, but that leaves nurses in uncertainty. Meanwhile, U.S. shortages grow.

    Whispering Hope International is launching an Immigration & Nursing briefing series for San Diego’s Filipino nurses and their employers. Together, we’ll advocate for faster processing, give legal resources, and offer wellness support for families navigating the wait.

    Call to Action:

    Subscribe to our quarterly immigration update and join our advocacy network for fair, humane visa reform.

  • Bridging Leadership Gaps for Filipino Nurses

    Bridging Leadership Gaps for Filipino Nurses

    Filipino nurses are the heartbeat of California’s hospitals. In San Diego County, they fill critical ICU and med-surg roles. They are often the first in and last out. They are the steady hands through crisis. Yet despite representing nearly a fifth of the state’s RN workforce, Filipino nurses hold far fewer management or faculty positions.

    This imbalance isn’t due to lack of skill. It’s rooted in decades of recruitment that funneled Filipino nurses into bedside care while limiting advancement opportunities. Add in systemic bias, mentorship gaps, and cultural humility that can discourage self-promotion—and leadership pipelines stay thin.

    At Whispering Hope International, we believe representation must reach the boardroom and the classroom. Together with the Philippine Nurses Association of San Diego, we’re designing leadership workshops. We are also creating mentoring circles. This will help experienced nurses transition into roles where they can influence policy. They will also manage to teach and inspire.

    Call to Action:

    Join us in building the Filipino Nurse Leadership Fellows program—where service meets strategy and healing transforms into leadership.