When the Nurse Couldn’t Save Herself: Unseen, Unheard, Unrescued—Healing the Human Cost of Health Care’s Collapse

Abstract

Health care has long been viewed as a system built on science, skill, and trust, yet when a clinician becomes a patient, a stark reality emerges: the trust we assume is inherent can often be fractured by systemic disconnection, dehumanization, and a culture that prioritizes protocols over people.

In this narrative reflection, I share my personal journey as a nurse who became a patient during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic—an experience that exposed not only the failures of care but the heavy burdens placed on health care workers by a system designed to stretch them beyond human limits.

This story underscores the urgent need to reconnect with the humanity that lives at the heart of healing and to recognize that rebuilding trust begins not with blaming individuals but with transforming a broken culture.