I am a clinical registered nurse of 49 years and a nurse educator for 10 years. The nursing students that I teach are exhausted from caring for COVID-19 patient and some nurses are experiencing PTSD, depression, and suicidal thoughts. The mental health of our nation's nurses is critical to you whenever you need health care that only nurses can provide. A recent survey reported that 22% of nurses employed in nursing have the intent to leave the nursing profession or their employing institution. There is a clinical and faculty nursing shortage that has been ongoing for decades and is now being compounded by the trauma and moral dilemma that US nurses are experiencing from the increased workload of the pandemic. The US healthcare delivery system cannot afford to lose even one nurse. The US owes an enormous debt of gratitude and recognition to the nurses and the sacrifices they have made for the US population. An intervention to support the mental health of nurses would be to cancel all student loan debt for all nurses relieving the financial burden of student loan indebtedness so they can focus on healing from the trauma they have experienced due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The US Department of Education will more inclined to provide this financial relief for nurses if many voices call for it. Please add your voice to this initiative by signing this petition.

D. Paxson Barker, PhD, MS, RN