About Julianna Paradisi, RN, OCN

Julianna Paradisi, RN, OCN, finds inspiration where science, humanity, and art converge, creating compelling images as both a writer and a painter. She is the author of https://jparadisirn.com/, and also blogs frequently for http://www.theonc.org/ and https://ajnoffthecharts.com/, the blog of the American Journal of Nursing (AJN).

Does Everything Happen for a Reason? One Oncology Nurse’s Perspective

Does Nature Argue Fate? The Acorn Contains The Tree/
charcoal, pastel, and ink on paper/ Julianna Paradisi 2019

The human need to find meaning.

“Everything happens for a reason” is a saying I hear a lot in my nursing practice, from patients and coworkers alike.

The need to find meaning in the events of our lives, good or bad, appears to be a distinctively human trait. Ancient Greeks believed Clotho, one of the Three Fates, spun the lives of humans. In medieval times, Anglo-Saxons may have believed in wyrd, a concept similar to fate in our modern language. Elsewhere, the idea of karma teaches a cause and effect perspective on this life, and on future lives. These are only a few examples.

Learning to ask ‘why’ as a pediatric ICU nurse.

I began questioning if everything happens for a reason as a pediatric intensive care nurse at the beginning of my career. Asking “why?” is a natural response to watching a child suffer. Why is a baby born without a functional left ventricle? Why does an infant contract leukemia or a brain tumor?

Certainly genetics or environmental factors cause some cases. Regardless, it’s difficult […]

2019-06-27T09:53:05-04:00June 27th, 2019|Nursing, nursing stories, patient experience, Patients|1 Comment
Read More

One in 4 Million: The Nurse Who Mentored Me

Hostility among nurses is a well-documented topic of discussion, a phenomenon studied by both academics and hospital administrators wanting to create functional teams. Perhaps the remedy for healthy nurse–coworker relationships isn’t found by studying dysfunctional relationships but by observing the successful ones.

I was lucky to have one.

I excelled as a student, even with balancing the role of nursing student with the role of mother to a preschool-aged daughter.

However, academic success and my talent for multitasking did not prepare me for the reality shock of a new-grad nurse.

Thrown into the deep end.

There was a nursing shortage. I was hired to a pediatric unit before graduation, skipping the two years of adult medical-surgical nursing before entering a specialty that was customary for new grads at the time. I began my first job, pending successfully passing state boards, with an interim permit.

It was an era before nurse residencies or comprehensive orientations. My orientation consisted of accompanying a day shift nurse while she managed her patients.

After two weeks, I began night shift on a 30-bed pediatric unit during the height of the respiratory infection season.

Night shifts were staffed with up to three RNs, overseeing certified nursing assistants. Often the CNAs came from agencies, possessing varying amounts of skill. As a new grad overseeing […]

2019-05-08T08:44:03-04:00May 8th, 2019|career, Nursing, nursing career|1 Comment
Read More

Holding Space for Integrative Medicine in Oncology Care

When the patient distrusts the treatment.

Explaining why chemotherapy is indicated for their treatment to a newly diagnosed cancer patient is part of a day’s work for oncology nurses and physicians. Oncology nurse navigators are no exception—I am relied upon to reinforce patient education and answer questions.

While many patients come to us with the attitude “I’ll do whatever you say, let’s fight this cancer!” others present with a deep distrust of health care. Some of their distrust is justified, a result of corporate greed, Big Pharma, and federal regulations, coupled with misunderstandings of the treatment approval process of insurance companies. Depending on the intensity of these patient conversations, it sometimes feels as if we, the oncology team, are under attack, when it is our intent to help.

Despite good health habits, a cancer diagnosis.

Held / Julianna Paradisi / colored pencil and ink on watercolor paper 2018 – adapted from image author drew during cancer treatment

I was a pediatric intensive care nurse when I was diagnosed with breast cancer. My oncology experience was limited to monitoring young patients with a high risk of tumor lysis syndrome during induction of chemotherapy. The actual chemotherapy was administered by pediatric oncology–certified nurses who knew how to keep the […]

2018-07-02T13:26:59-04:00July 2nd, 2018|Nursing, nursing roles, patient experience, Patients|3 Comments
Read More

What Would You Do If You Weren’t a Nurse?

“The further away I get from direct patient contact, the less I enjoy being a nurse.”

Last week was Nurses Week, and on its Facebook page, the American Journal of Nursing posted the question, “What would you do if you weren’t a nurse?”

It was not surprising to me that many nurses commented something to the effect of, “I don’t know. I like being a nurse.” Others, though, posted a variety of career choices, often unrelated to nursing, many of them in creative fields.

I did not grow up wanting to be a nurse.

The List Inkjet, collage, and water media on paper, by Julianna Paradisi 2018

When I was three years old, I wanted to be a horse. Once I realized it was impossible, I settled on becoming a ballerina. However, the small community where I grew up did not have a dance studio or classes, so this aspiration also fell to the wayside.

In junior high school, I decided I would become a writer. I already knew I was an artist; I’d known that before I wanted to be a horse. I’ve always drawn, and still do, nearly daily. I began writing and keeping journals in elementary school.

A librarian’s intuition.

When I was 15, our […]

2018-05-16T10:44:17-04:00May 16th, 2018|Nursing, nursing stories|1 Comment
Read More

The Invisible Nature of Grief

Most nurses know the stages of grief by heart: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. We know the stages do not occur in an orderly, linear fashion. People flow in and out of each stage, circling back around to earlier stages as needed.

But I’m not aware of anyone discussing the invisible, insulating environment grief surrounds its survivors within. An acquaintance described it like this:

“We had just taken our son off of life-support, and sat with him as he passed. Our entire family had gathered to say goodbye. After leaving the hospital, we went to eat. I sat in the café, marveling at the world outside, that people were going about their daily lives, and I had just lost my son.”

When grieving periods were the norm.

collage by julianna paradisi/2018

A cultural understanding of this phenomena developed during the Victorian era, and still exists in period romance novels: People of means, after suffering the loss of a loved one or recovering from traumatic illness or injury, were sent to live with relatives in the country or at the seaside. There, they had no household responsibilities beyond taking long walks through the forest or along the shore, keeping journals, or sketching. In romance novels, the grieving heroine gets the added bonus of discovering a Fabio-like love to […]

2018-04-09T18:43:00-04:00April 9th, 2018|family, family experience, Nursing, Patients|0 Comments
Read More

Comment ground rules

1. Please be respectful.
2. We moderate all comments.

Content disclaimer

Views expressed on the blog are solely those of the authors or persons quoted. They do not necessarily reflect AJN’s views or those of Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams and Wilkins.
Go to Top