Chandler Browning spent four years perfecting her swing on The University of Texas at Arlington's women's golf team. Now, in her first semester as a nursing student, she's being trained like an athlete again — but this time the "sport" is saving lives.
Browning is among the first students at UT Arlington to experience a bold new way of preparing future nurses: treating them as "clinical athletes." The idea is simple but powerful. Nurses do one of the most physically and mentally demanding jobs in health care, so educators decided it was time they trained for it the way Olympians train for competition.
Tyler Garner, a program director in exercise science, and Cynthia Koomey, who leads undergraduate nursing, created the Clinical Athlete Framework to bring performance science to the nursing profession. The program weaves strength training, sleep science, nutrition and strategic recovery breaks into nursing studies, so students build the stamina and resilience their careers will demand.
The need is urgent. Health care systems nationwide are facing severe workforce shortages and sky-high burnout rates. Research shows burnout affects one in five nursing students globally, and one in three nurses leaves their first job within a year. According to the American Nurses Foundation, a stunning 69% of nurses under age 25 report symptoms of burnout.
Koomey knows the strain firsthand from her days at a Level I trauma hospital. Nurses there often worked three consecutive 12-hour shifts, sometimes stretching a fourth day to 16 hours. "It can easily be 30,000 steps per shift," she said, describing the exhausting work of pushing heavy ICU beds through hospital halls.
Garner argues that nurses should be counted among occupational athletes — in the same conversation as firefighters, police officers and emergency medical crews. "There's an entire framework built around the demands of their jobs; nursing is never included in those conversations," he said. "What we're trying to do is bridge that gap."
Strength matters for a reason beyond endurance: the Bureau of Labor Statistics finds nurses suffer higher-than-average rates of musculoskeletal disorders. Getting future nurses stronger, Garner says, could prevent many of those injuries before they ever happen.
The American Nurses Association already lists exercise among its strategies to fight burnout, noting that physical activity relieves stress and makes nursing's physical demands easier. The Clinical Athlete Framework simply takes that advice and builds it, deliberately, into nursing school itself.
For Browning, the collaboration across departments is exactly the point. "It's awesome to see educators come together to promote student health, safety and education," she said.
By training nurses like the athletes they truly are, UT Arlington hopes a new generation will enter the wards stronger, healthier and ready to stay — bringing care to patients for the long haul.