"I was already feeling the [RN-BSN] program after, like, two months,

“and then, in the third month, we were told, ‘We’re going to the CCI retreat’ . . . It was a day that was entirely about, What can we do for you? What can you do for yourself? How do you promote your own well-being in a way that you can go out and share with others?

“Because nursing is a profession that requires a lot of giving, and if you just give, and give, and give, and never take time to replenish yourself, eventually you just burn out.

Tyler Atkinson (RN-BSN Student, Class of ’26)

“The day of our CCI retreat I outed myself. I’d had the desire to go part-time [at work] . . . which marked the first time in my life that I’d ever considered doing anything other than full-time work, but it was a really big psychological hurdle for me. I’d been talking about it with my wife, but, between the night shift, the new transition to nursing school, having a little one at home, and knowing there’d be another little one coming, it just started percolating in me, like, ‘Maybe if I worked less, everything would feel a little less intense.’ My wife was supportive. She was working, and we had some savings. But I couldn’t get over the hump to make the decision. But that day at the CCI retreat, I listened to my peers talk about all the things they’d done to prioritize themselves in their professional lives to get to where they wanted to be.

“I hadn’t told my manager yet, but I told everybody there, ‘I’m going part-time.’ Now, I had a group that I was accountable to, so I had to go have the conversation with my manager, who was absolutely supportive. It meant that I not only moved to part-time, I eventually switched to weekends only and stopped working nights. And it’s been perfect. Every single day, it’s important to take time to develop yourself, develop your family. I know now: it’s time you don’t ever get back.”

Atkinson, a UVA Health ICU nurse and father of two, is a former firefighter and paramedic, an RN to BSN student, and a UVA School of Nursing student ambassador.