Why are nurses quitting? Ask the nurse no hospital will hire.

In January 2022, 150 health-care workers piled into a Manhattan comedy club. Many hadn’t been inside an entertainment venue in nearly two years, and even now, their heads flashed with images of dystopian nightmare: the body bags and cold storage trucks; the last-ever FaceTime calls; the unvaccinated patients who spewed invective before being hooked up to respirators. More recently, they’d come off long, understaffed shifts in ERs and ICUs across the city. They were exhausted. But they were in the right place.

They had come to see Katie Duke: a 40-year-old, 5-foot-tall troublemaker in black and mocha suede Jordans who emerged from the pandemic as a nursing celebrity. Duke is a nurse practitioner (NP), content creator and health-care advocate who hosts a society and culture podcast titled “Bad Decisions.” She’s also an Instagram influencer who promotes lifestyle brands to her 143,000 followers. But her 90-minute show — “Bad Decisions: A Night of Healthcare, Comedy and Catharsis” — was her first experience with stand-up. If it went well, a booking agency had promised her a national tour.