Combining Nursing with Writing

One nurse author whom I have enjoyed reading is Echo Heron. I was reminded of her when I  I received an e-mail from a 58 year old female who likes to write and was wondering about starting a nursing career - one of her dreams. I am posting my reply to her on my blog as I feel it may answer questions that others may have.

I feel that anyone can achieve their dreams if they want to bad enough.

That said nursing is a very physically demanding job. Nursing school is quite rigorous. I know that at this age I could never accomplish what I did to get through nursing school. But then I also worked my way through school - 32 hours a week as a nurse's aide all while taking 18 - 21 credit hours per semester. My body was young and able at that time.

I don't want to discourage you. There are specialties which may require less rigor than others and may allow for an older starting age. For instance if you futher your education to become a nurse practioner you can have your own practice - that is in the US. I am not sure about regulations in Australia. Consider though that by the time your schooling is finished you will have reached what most people consider retirement age.

I am retired from nursing at this time. The last job I held as a nurse was telephone triage work for a national company. It was not demanding physically - very interesting. They will not hire a nurse without at least five years experience with a broad back ground. The job I did before that was called Disease Management - for another National firm where we taught our members how to care for their diabetes, heart disease, COPD & Asthma, and Low Back Pain. It was also telephonic work with computer charting. Most of the rest of my nursing career is chronicled in my memoirs, A Nurse's World. They can be purchased from the publisher @ iUniverse.com or from Amazon.com.

I wrote those books using my pen name Rachel Andersen - to help protect confidentiallity of the patients and coworkers I mentioned in the true stories / with changed names.

Currently I work part time as the executive assistant to Pamela Goodfellow PhD of Goodfellow Publishing Services.  Dr. Goodfellow teaches "Crafting the Character Based Novel." Her classes have helped me improve my writing tremendously.

My book Save the Child will be out next month. I wrote this book using my legal name Margaret L. Turley RN. It is fiction based on current events. It will be available for purchase through Amazon.com or by order from me. I have been working on this book part time for seven years. Now it is finally finished and I have several more works in progress. Writing is very challenging and satisfying. I feel that writing helps me achieve my goal of reaching out to help others in a fashion  that can touch even more lives than I did in my nursing career. I have created blogs that assist me to widen my influence. I plan to publish my children's and inspirational books under my maiden name Margaret Larsen.

I hope that this letter gives you the answers you are seeking. I wish you the best for whatever you pursue in the future.