Why I became a nurse writer

My first nursing hero was Cherry Ames. (The nurse version of Nancy Drew.) Smart and caring, Cherry went on many adventures while providing perfect nursing care for her patients. Each book brought a new adventure and a different nursing role. I wanted to be Cherry Ames when I grew up. 

And, I did, somewhat. I’ve been a registered nurse for twenty years now. I certainly haven’t had the adventures Cherry Ames did, but I can’t say nursing has been boring. 

Thanks to Cherry, I came into nursing with a sizable list of types of nursing I wanted to do. My list only continues to grow as nursing has expanded, due to continued specialization. From the hospital to resorts to schools to cyberspace, you can find a form of nursing in every area of life.

 That’s one of the wonderful things about nursing. If you don’t like where you are at, you can easily change your specialty and revamp your career. 

The more I’ve worked with patients, the more I realize understanding what is happening with their bodies lags far behind their diagnosis. The more healthcare specializes, the more complex the specialized language becomes, the more information there is for patients to need to understand and the less patients understand it all.

Part of the role of a nurse is to work as both an advocate and a liaison for their patients. Included in this is the ability to interpret medical terminology into words the patient can understand. We all receive training in how to do this and how to adjust for each individual patient. I always felt there is a great need to put this information in writing for patients to access at any time. 

Thanks to the internet, more and more people have access to lots of information. Not all the information is reliable, though. It is very easy to spread unreliable information. Patients need to have a way to know how reliable the information is that they find on the internet. One way is going to sites that are run by healthcare companies and facilities that are already known for their sound, scientific knowledge.

Those websites need reliable writers. Writers who have experience, not only in healthcare, but in researching information and then the ability to disseminate that information in a clear, concise format that almost any person could understand. As a nurse, and a writer, I hold all those qualifications. 

I became a nurse writer to not only combine my love of nursing and writing, but to provide quality and sound scientific information to a larger number of people in a way they can understand and then apply that information. Through my freelance nurse writing business, I can now do that.