The Kitchen Table Care Chats

With over 30 years of experience as an LPN, Cheryl Nickerson brings a powerful blend of hands-on clinical expertise, adult education, and trauma-informed mental health training to the kitchen table.

In this episode, we unpack burnout through the lens of real frontline experience — what it actually looks like in practice, how trauma shows up in care environments, and why education and self-awareness are critical to sustaining our workforce.

Cheryl shares honest reflections from decades in healthcare, offering both validation and practical insight for caregivers, leaders, and anyone navigating the emotional weight of caring for others.

This conversation is grounded, real, and deeply needed.

Retention isn’t about forcing people to stay — it’s about creating a place they don’t want to leave.

In healthcare, when staff feel supported, valued, and able to do meaningful work, turnover drops and care improves. Retention isn’t a staffing metric — it’s a culture signal.

Pull up a chair and let's chat.

Healthcare burnout is everywhere — yet so few people feel safe naming it. In this episode, we explore why healthcare professionals stay silent despite rising workloads, moral distress, and exhaustion. From fear of professional repercussions to a culture that rewards self-sacrifice over self-preservation, burnout has become normalized rather than addressed. This conversation challenges listeners to question why speaking up feels risky in a system built on care — and what it will take to change that.

🎙️ Kitchen Table Care Chats — Trailer Out Now

Real conversations. Honest reflections. The care system, unpacked.

Kitchen Table Care Chats is a new podcast creating space for candid, human conversations about caregiving, healthcare, burnout, and the systems we work within — and live within — every day.

In this trailer, we set the tone for what’s to come:
unfiltered dialogue, lived experience, and the conversations that usually happen after the shift ends.

🗓 Launching January 30, 2026

Proudly sponsored by Surge Learning and Carelynk Inc., organizations committed to supporting care professionals through education, innovation, and meaningful change.

Pull up a chair.
The conversations start at the kitchen table.