In this episode of Beat Nurse Burnout, Shan sits down with Susan Ro — creator of the Aligned Leadership Method, host of the Leadership for Busy Working Moms podcast, and a woman who knows firsthand what it looks like to rebuild your life around what actually matters.

Susan went from the high-energy world of New York City fashion to teaching, marriage, motherhood of four boys, and eventually to coaching and leading other women — and the thread running through all of it is a simple but radical conviction: that lasting leadership starts with leading yourself, in alignment with Christ, before it ever extends to anyone else.

This episode is for the nurse who is excellent at her job and exhausted in her life. It is for the woman of faith who has confused people pleasing with godliness. It is for the high achiever who has never once thought of herself as a leader — because she has spent her entire career following someone else's agenda.

In this conversation, Shan and Susan talk about:

• The through line God was weaving through Susan's career path that she could not see until she looked back
• What busy working moms and nurses have in common no matter how different their circumstances look on the outside
• Why leading yourself first is not selfish — and how to reframe it as the most faithful thing you can do
• How aligning your life to Christ functions as a leadership strategy — not just a spiritual practice — and what that changes about daily decisions, schedules, and relationships
• What to say to the woman who has never thought of herself as a leader because she has always been the one taking orders
• How people pleasing hides inside faithfulness and how to finally recognize it for what it is
• What stewarding your own life — your health, your time, your calling — looks like as an act of obedience rather than selfishness
• How to actually debrief after a hard shift or a hard day instead of just absorbing it and carrying it home
• How to articulate your feelings clearly — because clarity about what you are experiencing is the first step to leading yourself out of it
• What stepping into obedience to who God called you to be actually requires — and what it costs to keep saying no to it

If you have ever felt like leadership was something you did for other people and never for yourself — this episode is going to reframe everything.

Connect with Susan Ro:

🎙️ Podcast: Leadership for Busy Working Moms 📱 Instagram: @susanro.rest 🌐 Website: susanro.com 📧 Email: hello@susanro.com ✨ Join her Insider's List: susanro.myflodesk.com/insider

You can assess a whole unit in thirty seconds... but when's the last time you assessed yourself?

In this episode, I'm breaking down the five signs of nurse burnout that don't look like burnout at all. They look like being reliable. Being the strong one. Being a good nurse. And that's exactly why so many of us miss them, or catch them years too late.

If you've ever wondered whether you're actually burned out, or if you're the nurse who's so deep in autopilot you haven't even stopped to ask... friend, this one's for you.

In this episode, we cover:

• The 3 lies keeping high-functioning nurses stuck (starting with "I just need to push through")
• Sign 1: you can assess everyone's needs except your own
• Sign 2: your default answer is yes, and no comes with guilt attached
• Sign 3: you're exhausted but rest feels like a threat, not a relief
• Sign 4: what chronic stress is actually doing to your body at the cellular level
• Sign 5: the calling you had before your first preceptor told you to toughen up

Loved this episode? Comment or DM me on Instagram @theshanwright or email me hello@theshanwright.com the word STRESS and I'll send you the STAT Protocol, free. It's the first step to leading yourself instead of just managing everyone else's shift.

In this episode, Lisa Ackland Carriere — founder of The Writing Well and writer at The Daily Calling on Substack — joins us to talk about the side of caregiving no one signs up for. When caregiving is forced on you by circumstance rather than chosen as a profession, compassion fatigue can quietly take root, leaving you emotionally shut down and disconnected from your own identity. Lisa shares her personal journey through years of layered crisis — parenting a son with ADD, developmental delays, and learning disabilities; a move that strained her marriage; the sudden loss of her mother; her brother's brain cancer diagnosis and death; and her husband's subsequent pancreatic cancer diagnosis. We talk about what compassion fatigue really looks like for caregivers — nurses and everyday women alike — how God reframes identity and purpose through the caregiving journey, and practical ways to support a caregiver both in the thick of crisis and in the aftermath, whatever the outcome.

In This Episode:

• What compassion fatigue is and how it accumulates over years of caregiving for a loved one who needs ongoing, difficult care
• Lisa's story: a son with developmental and learning challenges, a marital rift after relocating for his schooling, and a cascade of loss — her mother, her brother, and her husband's health
• The difference between caregiving as a chosen profession and caregiving that's simply your life
• How identity gets buried under years of "just showing up," and how it can be reclaimed
• How God reframes purpose and identity in the middle of caregiving crisis
• Practical ways to support a caregiver mid-crisis
• Practical ways to support a caregiver after the crisis — whether their loved one survived or passed away

About Lisa Ackland Carriere: Lisa Ackland Carriere is the founder and director of The Writing Well, providing writing services and collaborative partnerships to professionals. Her business grew out of her 20-year career as a college English instructor and as a writer and communicator for global ministries. She also writes for Christian women on Substack at The Daily Calling with Lisa Ackland Carriere.

Connect with Lisa:

• Website: lisaacklandcarriere.com
• The Writing Well: thewritingwellconsulting.com
• Substack: substack.com/@lisaacklandcarriere Ready for a life-changing conversation? Book your complimentary stress assessment and get personalized tools you can use — even in the middle of a 12-hour shift. Book today! (complimentary, but spaces fill fast) Shalom Shalom, Xx, Shan ……CONNECT…… The STAT Protocol: 5 min Emergency Reset Take the Free QUIZ- Are you in burnout or just stressed?? Stress Assessment (free) - get to the root of your stress 💖Anti-Aging Power 3!! -my top tools for Longevity! 🙌STEADY : group coaching program 🎉Nurse Burnout Prevention group - fb community Disclaimer: Information given within the podcast is not intended for medical advice, rather advice and encouragement for developing wellness habits for healthy living.

For years, achievement was the plan. Corporate success, leadership, recognition... it was supposed to add up to a fulfilled life. Instead it added up to exhaustion.

In this episode, I sit down with Anna Girgan, Founder of EPIPHANIES™ and host of the EPIPHANIES podcast, to talk about the belief her entire movement is built on... identity shapes reality. We get into what happens when high-achieving women (nurses, this is you too) spend years performing instead of living in alignment with who they were actually created to be, and what it took for Anna to walk away from a two-decade career to find out who she was without the title. Anna Girgan is the Founder of EPIPHANIES™, a movement built on one core belief... identity shapes reality. Anna helps ambitious women activate who they were created to be, so they can stop living reactively and start creating lives, businesses, and legacies that actually reflect their potential. She blends neuroscience, practical strategy, and faith in a way I have not heard anywhere else... she's not handing you more information. She's helping you get activated. Anna is also the host of the EPIPHANIES podcast, where every single conversation starts with one question: what's YOUR epiphany?

In this episode, we cover:

• Why burnout is often an identity wake-up call in disguise
• What it looks like to move from surviving to living in alignment
• Anna's signature question, and why she asks every guest: what's YOUR epiphany?
• Her new exciting offer that gets Obedience into quick Action!

Connect with Anna Girgan:

• Website: epiphaniescoaching.com
• Instagram: @myepiphanies.co
• LinkedIn: Anna Girgan
• Email: anna@epiphaniescoaching.com
• Podcast: EPIPHANIES™

Join Anna in Podcast in 72 hours Workshop August 25-27 - where I will be leading expert Q&A! Email or message on instagram PODCAST for details on how to register! Let me know this episode lands for you- email me Hello@theshanwright.com

Shalom, shalom ✨

This episode is for the nurse who is her own harshest critic — replaying the shift on the drive home, fixating on the one thing that went wrong instead of everything that went right.

In this episode, we talk about how the precision this job demands (because a small mistake really can mean someone gets hurt) can quietly turn into a critical inner voice that never clocks out. It follows you home. It shows up in how you parent, how you rest, how you talk to yourself about the small human moments — the late clock-in, the snoozed alarm, the donut from the breakroom.

We sit with Romans 8:1 and the truth that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus — not "no condemnation if," just no condemnation. And we talk about the order that grace actually works in: we don't clean ourselves up to earn it, we receive it because of who He is — and once we know our worth, we can finally stop condemning ourselves.

Then we breathe it in, one truth at a time:

Inhale: I'm in Christ Jesus Exhale: There is No condemnation

Scripture featured: Romans 8:1

If this episode met you somewhere tender today, share it with a nurse who needs to hear it too. Shalom, shalom. 🕊️

Today we talk about the 4 unconscious anxiety autopilot behaviors nurses fall into on shift — conflict, distancing, over-functioning, and projection — and how to disrupt them.

Seven to nine seconds. That's how long before you're even consciously aware of it that a biochemical stress reaction has already set your autopilot into motion on shift. In this episode, I break down the Yerkes-Dodson stress curve and the four unconscious autopilot behaviors anxiety triggers in nurses — conflict, distancing, over/under-functioning, and projection — with real, specific nursing-shift examples for each one. You'll learn why these patterns exist, how to recognize your own default, and how to disrupt it in real time using the STAT Protocol, a simple in-the-moment tool you can use mid-shift, even in an emergency.

• The Yerkes-Dodson stress curve and what it reveals about the difference between optimal stress, fatigue, anxiety, and burnout
• Why anxiety autopilot behaviors form outside your conscious control — and where they come from
• The 4 autopilot patterns nurses default to under stress: conflict, distancing, over/under-functioning, and projection
• Real nursing examples of each pattern in action, from compassion fatigue to post-shift irritability
• How to use the STAT Protocol (See, Take a Breath, Acknowledge, Thanksgiving) to disrupt autopilot in the moment
• Reflection questions to process your shift and reset your response pattern for next time Recognize yourself in one of these four patterns? DM "STRESS" @theshanwright on instagram or email: hello@theshanwright.com to get the free STAT Protocol and take your next shift with a tool in your pocket instead of just an autopilot in charge. Shalom Shalom, Xx, Shan ……CONNECT…… The STAT Protocol: 5 min Emergency Reset Take the Free QUIZ- Are you in burnout or just stressed?? Stress Assessment (free) - get to the root of your stress 💖Anti-Aging Power 3!! -my top tools for Longevity! 🙌STEADY : group coaching program 🎉Nurse Burnout Prevention group - fb community Disclaimer: Information given within the podcast is not intended for medical advice, rather advice and encouragement for developing wellness habits for healthy living.

nurse burnout, anxiety autopilot, nurse anxiety, nurse stress management, Yerkes-Dodson law, compassion fatigue, nurse mental health, over-functioning, under-functioning, nurse self-care, high-functioning fatigue, nurse leader burnout, STAT Protocol, faith-based burnout recovery, nurse anxiety triggers