Caring for patients can be "organized chaos," nurses say. As the foot soldiers of health care, they function at the pressure point, the front lines of the war zone, where "you have to be flawless." "You can't make one mistake," said Daniel Griffiths, 47, of Greenfield, a nurse at UPMC Montefiore. "It's physically draining. You're on your feet for a 12-hour shift." It helps explain why stress levels in nursing can lead to mental and physical exhaustion, burnout, anxiety, depression, high blood pressure and sleep disorders, with occupational hazards trespassing onto one's free time.
