From Nurse to Author: 2 Dreams Come True

The ribbon had a strange sort of chemical smell to it, yet something about the odor was inviting. At 5 years old, I wasn’t able to lift the giant manual typewriter my pop pop had given me, so I would ask my parents to bring it down from the shelf any time I was feeling inspired to write. Now, I might not have been composing the next literary masterpiece (or even typing actual words), but I struck the keys one by one and my letters were appearing like magic on the paper. Not scribbled words in crayon…typed print just like in my books on the shelf in my room.

As I got a bit older, I couldn’t wait to learn reading and writing in school. Each day, I’d race back to the typewriter to practice what I had learned and put words to page. Soon, my nonsense became words, words became sentences, and those sentences started to build stories. I had much to say (not much has changed) and I began creating little books on my typewriter. The cover was always made from the cardboard backing to the notepads my mother used for her grocery lists. It took a while before I’d get my tiny hands on one of those pieces of cardboard, so I was selective about which stories became books. Bound with 3 staples and loaded with colorful illustrations, I knew then that I was destined to become an author.

Funny how life always seems to send us through so many twists and turns. While I never became a professional writer, writing has always been an arm’s-length passion of mine. In high school, I wrote a few commentary articles. One was even featured in a big time newspaper! I was a history major in college and wrote hundreds (probably thousands) of pages worth of research papers and essays. Now, several more twists and turns later, I find myself a nurse with a blog and, really really soon, a paperback book.

I have always wanted to write. I have always wanted to help people in an incredibly meaningful way. In short, I’m right where I have always wanted to be. My book, Brand New Nurse: Surviving Your First Day on the Job, will release in July of 2022 on Amazon and is a project I am already deeply proud of. Rather than channeling my inner Hemingway and flexing my literary muscles, I wrote this book for my audience: the new nurses of the world who are probably at this very moment taking a selfie with the stack of books they had to read for nursing school.

Why would a new nurse, considering the thousands of pages required in school, be interested in reading Brand New Nurse? For one, it’s an easy read. Plain talk, legible text, short pages, tiny chapters. I was able to consolidate a massive amount of information into a book less than 150 pages long, and that includes the preface and forward. Two, this book will guide new nurses in a way that all those thousands of academic pages won’t. I got 12 of my colleagues together to weigh in and provide their tips and advice alongside my own to provide the most comprehensive new nurse startup guide possible.

So what does the book cover? Everything a new nurse would want to know prior to their first shift. In Brand New Nurse, I cover what gear you should bring on your first day including how to pick your scrubs and footwear. There is a chapter specific to night shift with plenty of tips on how to adjust your mind and body to working when the world sleeps. I discuss relationship-building and how to establish your professional reputation. There is advice on how to communicate with other medical professionals like how to call the doc without getting nervous or overwhelmed. I even prepare you for the emotional rigors of nursing, something nursing school typically leaves new grad nurses ill equipped to manage.

As I make my final tweaks on Brand New Nurse and prepare to set a launch date, I hope you’ll stick with me through my journey into authorship. I am excited to play a part in helping new nurses enter the profession with the confidence to be successful. Many new grads, a few weeks into orientation, may wish there was some sort of guidebook to help them fill in the gaps nursing school left behind…soon there will be.