Can Nurses Take a Sabbatical? What You Need to Know Before You Decide

By Coleen Garcia, RN  |  Burnout to Bliss Abroad  |  burnouttoblissdigital.com

I spent 30 years in nursing before I figured out this option existed. If you are burned out and looking for a way out that does not blow up your career, read this first.

I want to start with something that took me a long time to say out loud.

I was a good nurse. I cared about my patients. I gave everything I had for three decades. And then one day I sat in my car in the hospital parking lot, unable to make myself go in.

I was not lazy. I was not weak. I was a 30-year registered nurse running on nothing, in a system that had been drawing from an empty well for years.

The thing that saved me was not quitting. It was not burning my scrubs in the backyard (though I thought about it). It was discovering that I had options I had never been told about. One of those options was a nursing sabbatical.

If you are reading this because you are burned out and looking for a way to breathe again without destroying the career you worked so hard to build, this post is for you.

What is a nursing sabbatical, exactly?

A sabbatical is a planned, intentional break from your job. It is not the same as calling in sick. It is not quitting. It is a structured period of time, typically anywhere from 30 days to 12 months, where you step away from your role to recover, recharge, or redirect.

In academia, sabbaticals have been standard practice for decades. In nursing, most healthcare workers have never heard the word used in a serious conversation about their own career. That is a problem.

The reality is that many hospitals and healthcare systems do offer formal leave of absence policies that nurses can use as the framework for a sabbatical. Most nurses never ask because they assume the answer will be no, or because asking feels like admitting weakness in a profession that has trained us to push through everything.

Most nurses have no idea their HR department has a leave of absence option sitting right there in the employee handbook. They never ask because they were trained to push through.

Why nurses are reaching a breaking point right now

This is not anecdotal. The data on nursing burnout is serious and it has been trending in one direction for years.

55%

of nurses in the US reported considering leaving the profession entirely in recent surveys. That is not a workforce issue. That is a crisis.

1 in 3

nurses report symptoms of burnout including emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced sense of personal accomplishment.

I know what those numbers look like from the inside. It looks like fantasizing about getting injured just so you have a legitimate reason not to go in. It looks like going through the motions with patients you used to genuinely care about. It looks like your days off not actually restoring you, because the dread of the next shift starts before the current one is even over.

If that sounds familiar, you are not broken. You are experiencing what happens when highly trained, deeply caring professionals are placed in a system with no room for recovery and no acknowledgment that they are human beings first.

A sabbatical will not fix a broken system. But it can give you enough space to figure out what your next chapter looks like, on your terms.

Can you take a sabbatical and keep your nursing license?

This is the question I hear most often, and I understand why. Your nursing license represents years of education, clinical hours, exams, and professional identity. The last thing you want is to take a break and lose the credential that makes everything else possible.

Here is the straightforward answer. Taking a leave of absence from your job does not affect your nursing license. Your license is maintained through your state Board of Nursing, not through your employer. As long as you meet your state's continuing education requirements and renew on schedule, your license remains active regardless of whether you are actively working.

The specifics vary by state, so I am not giving you legal advice here. What I am telling you is that the assumption that taking time off will cost you your license is one of the most common reasons nurses talk themselves out of rest they genuinely need, and it is based on a misunderstanding of how licensure actually works.

Before you make any decisions, look up your state's Board of Nursing requirements for license renewal and inactive status. Read your employee handbook. Then call HR and ask the direct question: what leave of absence options do I have?

What to ask HR before you make any decisions

Most nurses never have this conversation because it feels too vulnerable. But HR departments are not your enemy here. They have policies. You just need to ask about them.

Here are the specific questions worth asking.

• +Do you offer a personal leave of absence and what are the eligibility requirements?

• +Is there a medical or mental health leave option and does burnout qualify?

• +What happens to my benefits, including health insurance, during a leave?

• +Is my position protected if I return within a certain timeframe?

• +Does the Family and Medical Leave Act apply to my situation?

• +What is the process for requesting a leave and what documentation is required?

Write the answers down. You are gathering information, not making a commitment. There is no shame in asking what your options are.

What does a nursing sabbatical actually look like?

It looks different for every person. That is the part nobody tells you. There is no single right way to take a sabbatical, and it does not have to mean quitting your job, selling your house, or moving to another country.

Some nurses use their leave to genuinely rest. To sleep without an alarm. To remember who they are outside of their role. To recover their nervous system from years of chronic stress.

Some use it to travel. A month in Costa Rica. Six weeks in Europe. Somewhere the daily pressure of the US healthcare system cannot reach them by phone.

Some, like me, use it as the entry point to something much bigger.

I took my leave and ended up in the Dominican Republic. What started as a reset became a permanent relocation. I now live in Puerto Plata with my husband Ricardo, a licensed Dominican attorney and active police officer, and I have built a community and a business helping other nurses explore the same option.

I am not telling you that is what your sabbatical will look like. I am telling you that you cannot know what is possible until you give yourself the space to find out.

The financial question everyone is afraid to ask

Can you afford to take a break from nursing?

Maybe the more honest question is: can you afford not to?

I stayed two years longer than I should have. Two years of telling myself just one more contract, just until the new manager starts, just until I hit the next milestone. Those two years cost me sleep I never fully recovered, relationships I had to rebuild, and a version of myself I had to work hard to find again.

That said, a sabbatical does require financial planning. Here is how most nurses approach it.

• +Build a three to six month emergency fund before you step away if possible. Even a 90-day cushion changes the math significantly.

• +Research the cost of living in your destination. If you are considering going abroad, some countries cost a fraction of what daily life in the US runs. In Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, two people can live comfortably on under $1,500 a month. That includes a rent with an ocean view.

• +Look at per diem or travel nursing options as a bridge. Some nurses work travel contracts before their leave to build savings faster.

• +Talk to a financial advisor who understands healthcare worker compensation and retirement accounts. The rules around 403(b) accounts and pension access vary widely.

If you want to run the actual numbers on what life abroad could cost you, I built a free DR Expat Budget Tracker specifically for healthcare workers considering this. It lays out real costs across rent, food, healthcare, transportation, and utilities so you can see the numbers clearly before you make any decisions.

Get the free DR Expat Budget Tracker

Real numbers. Real costs. Built for nurses who want to see the math before they make a decision. No fluff, no pressure, no sales pitch inside.

Download it free here

What about living abroad without speaking Spanish?

I do not speak fluent Spanish. I want to be clear about that because I know it is one of the first things that stops people from considering the Dominican Republic or anywhere in Latin America.

I have built a real life here. I navigate daily errands, medical appointments, neighborhood relationships, and everything else that comes with living in a Spanish-speaking country, without being fluent. It requires effort. It requires patience. It requires leaning on the right people when you need to.

My husband Ricardo handles legal and official matters because that is his expertise, not just because of the language. For everything else, I have learned enough to function, and I have surrounded myself with people who help bridge the gaps.

Is it an adjustment? Yes. Is it a dealbreaker? No. And I say that as someone who lived it, not as someone selling you a fantasy.

How to start planning even if you are not ready to decide

You do not need to have everything figured out to take the first step. You just need to start gathering information.

Here is a simple place to begin.

• +Pull out your employee handbook and read the leave of absence section today. Not next week. Today. It takes ten minutes and you will know more than most of your colleagues about your own options.

• +Check your state Board of Nursing website for the specific requirements around inactive license status and renewal.

• +Download the free budget tracker and run your numbers. Give yourself permission to be curious without committing to anything.

• +Join the free community I built for healthcare workers in this exact position. Ask your real questions. Get real answers from people who are either in the process or have already made the move.

You do not have to be ready to move. You just have to be willing to look at what is possible. That is all this first step requires.

A word before you close this tab

I know what it is like to read something like this and immediately start listing the reasons it is not possible for you. I know because I did it for two years before I finally stopped.

My kids are grown. My mortgage was ending. My body was telling me things I had been trained to ignore. Eventually I ran out of reasons to stay and started paying attention to the reasons I might be allowed to go.

Your situation is different from mine. Your timeline, your finances, your family, your license state. All different. I am not telling you what your sabbatical should look like or whether the Dominican Republic is the right destination for you.

What I am telling you is that there are more options available to you right now than you probably know about. And the first step is just information.

Come find us in the community. It is free. Nobody is going to pressure you into anything. You will find healthcare workers at every stage of this decision, from just starting to wonder, to already living abroad. Ask your questions. Read through what others are navigating. See if any of it resonates.

That is all I am asking you to do today.

Join the free Burnout to Bliss Abroad community on Skool

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Coleen Garcia, RN

Registered nurse with 30 years of experience, primarily in hospice care. Semi-retired and living permanently in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic with her husband Ricardo, a licensed Dominican attorney and active police officer. Founder of Burnout to Bliss Abroad. She does not speak fluent Spanish and built a full life here anyway.