The Claims We’ve Heard “The system runs on the back of nurses — breaking themselves to keep it from collapsing.” “We (nurses) are the safety net for a system with holes too big to mend.” “It’s not resilience — it’s survival. And no one should have to die for a paycheck that barely lets them live.” These statements capture perceived truth about stress, moral injury, and strain in nursing. But they also carry implicit assumptions about collapse, indispensability, and inevitabil