Anecdote time. My GF is an OT, burnt out as hell, and pushing through it. Walking away means just not being paid for a while, because the options are either 1) go to a different facility, which wouldn't make anything better because the whole industry is struggling with covid, or 2) go to a job outside the industry, which means reskilling or making unskilled wages with a bachelor's+master's sized mountain of student loan debt, or 3) just quitting and burning through savings for a while.

Before covid, it was already an abusive job. She doesn't quit a job that is super abusive because it feels like abandoning patients. Her employers take advantage of that. And then the world goes "thanks docs and nurses" and then the rest of the industry on the front lines is like, yeah I guess we're invisible. And if her wages did go up, everyone would just gripe about how abusive it is that healthcare (a human right!) costs so much. She puts up with so much horrible shit, working so much harder than I do for so much less, because her patients really, really matter to her.

If you judge healthcare workers for walking out, understand that they're dealing with tremendous pressure and abuse. If you judge healthcare workers for not walking out, like they're just getting what's coming, reaping what they sow, understand that they do this for reasons that aren't just money, and be thankful that they are willing to give more than they get.

They're burning out helping people. Have empathy.