More than a third of nurses say shame keeps them from getting mental health help, even though the hospitals they work for openly tell them to ask for it.
Quick Take
- A Johns Hopkins Medicine podcast episode pushes the message that seeking mental health support is a sign of strength for healthcare workers, not weakness.
- Johns Hopkins already runs a confidential peer-support program called RISE, built in 2011 to help staff cope with stressful work events.
- Research shows over 36% of nurses report feeling stigma around getting mental health care, and many physicians fear it could hurt their careers.
- Studies find roughly 40% of physicians worry that seeking treatment could threaten their medical license.
A Hospital System Says Asking For Help Takes Courage
Johns Hopkins Medicine built an entire podcast episode around one idea. Seeking mental health care is a strength, not a weakness, for the people who spend their careers caring for everyone else. The episode, titled “Seeking Support Is a Strength,” is part of the hospital’s Office of Well-Being podcast series aimed at normalizing therapy and counseling for doctors, nurses, and other clinical staff.
The message isn’t just talk. Johns Hopkins HealthCare ran a mental health awareness panel where staff stated plainly that raising your hand for help is not weakness. Recognizing you need support, the panel said, is itself a sign of strength. That kind of direct, repeated messaging from hospital leadership marks a real shift from the old culture of toughing it out silently.
Why Healthcare Workers Avoid The Help They Need
Doctors and nurses face barriers most patients never think about. Johns Hopkins’ Office of Well-Being points out that clinicians often struggle to find confidential care at hours that fit their brutal schedules. That’s why the hospital recommends on-campus, confidential options and trains supervisors to spot early signs of distress in their teams.
The stigma problem is well documented beyond Johns Hopkins too. A review published in Critical Care Nurse found more than 36% of nurses report stigma tied to seeking mental health care. Separate research found 72% of providers cite lack of time as a barrier, while 49% worry about privacy and 37% fear it could hurt their professional license.
The RISE Program Puts The Message Into Practice
Words only go so far without real support behind them. Johns Hopkins Hospital launched its RISE program, short for Resilience in Stressful Events, back in 2011. It offers confidential peer support to staff dealing with tough patient outcomes or workplace stress, and it stayed available around the clock during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Programs like RISE matter because stigma doesn’t disappear just because a hospital says the right things. One national study found 57% of healthcare workers didn’t seek mental health support in the past year, and 15% said they needed help but never got it. Having a confidential peer right there, inside the hospital, can close that gap in ways a podcast alone cannot.
Licensing Questions Still Loom Over Every Decision
Here’s the uncomfortable part. Even hospitals that openly encourage therapy can’t erase outside pressures. Roughly 40% of physicians worry that admitting to mental health treatment could cost them their license or hospital privileges. That fear is rational, not paranoid, since licensing boards have historically asked invasive questions about past mental health care.
Some states are starting to fix this. Washington revised its physician application in 2023 to drop questions about past mental health or substance-use treatment, asking only about current conditions instead. Advocacy groups tied to the Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation are pushing other states to follow suit. Until licensing rules catch up everywhere, “it’s a strength to ask for help” will keep competing with “it could end your career” in the back of every clinician’s mind.
What A Culture Shift Actually Requires
Common sense says you can’t talk your way out of a structural problem. A podcast episode telling nurses and doctors that seeking help is brave is a good start, and it costs the hospital nothing to say. But real change needs confidential care that’s actually accessible, licensing boards that stop punishing honesty, and supervisors trained to notice struggling staff before a crisis hits.
Johns Hopkins deserves credit for building RISE, training supervisors, and putting its name behind blunt statements like “asking for help is not weakness.” That’s more than most employers do. The next test is whether the access matches the message, because exhausted doctors and nurses will believe what their schedules and their licenses tell them long before they believe a podcast.
The people who hold the rest of us together in our worst moments deserve a system that holds them up too, not just a recorded pep talk.
Sources:
healthpodcastlibrary.com, hopkinsmedicine.org, pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, nursing.jhu.edu, hopkinsusfhp.org
