To Be or Not to Be: Choosing Between a Career in Art or Nursing

Art or Nursing, ink and watercolor, 2021 by Julianna Paradisi

The phrase ‘art of nursing’ describes how nurses bring personalized care to our patients. People with creative impulses are often as attracted to health science as to paint and canvas. My own combined career path of artist, writer, and nurse is an example. But although nursing and creative arts careers sometimes overlap, they require very different preparation and academic degrees .

Because of the path I’ve taken, I’m often approached by multitalented young people wanting advice when deciding between dedicating themselves to a career in the arts or taking a chance with building an art career while enjoying a relatively more dependable income in nursing.

A recent email from an artistically gifted high school senior distilled her concerns into these questions:

  • Do you find it rewarding to be a nurse?
  • Did nursing help your art career?
  • Do you have regrets about choosing nursing instead of another career more related to a career in art?
  • What advice would you give about this decision?

Yes, I have found nursing rewarding.

I have written in other blog posts that nursing was not my first choice for a career. I wanted to be a writer and make art, but […]

2021-01-27T10:22:15-05:00January 25th, 2021|Nursing, nursing career|4 Comments
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Despite Marijuana Legalization Trend, Licensure Pitfalls for Nurses Remain

Voters in still more states opt for marijuana legalization.

THC-infused gummies

If there’s a chance something you’re doing, even if it’s legal in your state, could nevertheless endanger your nursing license or cost you your job, are you likely to risk it? This is the quandary many nurses find themselves in when it comes to the use of medical or recreational marijuana or even cannnabidiol (CBD) oil.

During the November presidential election, five more states voted on ballot initiatives to legalize either recreational marijuana (Arizona, New Jersey, and South Dakota), medical marijuana (Mississippi), or in one case (Montana) both at the same time. Every year more states legalize medical and/or recreational marijuana.

And CBD, a hemp-derived compound that in certain formulations contains trace amounts of the main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, THC, has rapidly become available in stores, cafes, and online and in multiple forms.

Whether prescribed by a physician and obtained at a medical marijuana dispensary, purchased legally in a state that allows its sale for recreational use, or obtained through other means, marijuana is increasingly being used by Americans for a wide range of problems major and minor, including chemotherapy-induced nausea, insomnia, epilepsy, and certain types of chronic pain. CBD oil in various forms is also being widely used for multiple health conditions.

Marijuana is still […]

2021-04-02T15:34:27-04:00November 16th, 2020|Nursing, nursing career|0 Comments
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What Would It Have Helped to Know as a New Nurse?

An incomplete record of starting out as a nurse. 

When I think back on my first year as a nurse, I always say two things to myself: “I wish I had written more,” and “I wish someone had given me a more realistic how-to manual.” I try to remember patients from back then. What would I have shared, had I written about each one?

I was never not writing about something (sometimes what I wrote was published on this blog), but over time, as I moved away from bedside care and into administration, I wrote differently: policies and program plans, research protocols and systematic reviews. Although I rarely worked directly with patients anymore, their positive outcomes continued to motivate my every word.

I like to think my writing has grown with me. I’ve learned the power of the active voice; the structure required for the APA Writing Manual. 7th edition; and the deepening of understanding that comes from reading and reflection. But I will always wish for more writing—of any kind—from that first year. Even a scribble to jog my memory. This nursing birth of mine, like any birth, began my nursing life in a very specific way. I was challenged and tested, understood and got lost, and, tragically, […]

2023-01-30T10:34:04-05:00October 22nd, 2020|new nurses, Nursing, nursing career|0 Comments
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How to Know When to Go: One Nurse’s Approach to the Retirement Question

Many possible takes on ‘retirement.’

When I meet many of my nursing school mates from (too many) years ago, conversation inevitably turns toward talk of retirement. There are many angles to this, from “Are you going to retire?” to “Are you thinking of slowing down?” to “What are you going to do next?”

I have friends who couldn’t wait to retire and wanted nothing more than an empty schedule to be able to make spur-of-the-moment decisions about what they wanted to do or not do. Others I know also retired fully from nursing but now are docents in museums, driving meals-on-wheels, supervising exercise in an elderly day care facility. And of course there are many who just “cut back”—they work part-time or per diem, but “keep their hand in.”

Photo by Aaron Cynic.

But the decision on when to leave a full-time career can be a difficult one, as the author of the July Transitions column, “What Would Ellen Do?” (free until August 20), points out.

Ellen Elpern was an advanced practice critical care nurse at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, a large urban academic medical center, loved the work and enjoyed working with her colleagues.

In making her decision to retire, she says, […]

2020-07-31T09:55:24-04:00July 31st, 2020|career, Nursing, nursing career|1 Comment
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Building Back Better: Constructive Nursing Regulation

As governor of the first COVID-19 epicenter in the country, Andrew Cuomo challenged New Yorkers to think about how the state could “build back better” after the crisis. As registered nurses with experience in health law and policy, we have recommendations for transforming the boards of nursing. The manner in which nurses are regulated must be reformed, not just in New York, but throughout the country. It must begin by understanding the dangerous environments in which nurses are working.

Staffing, safety issues affect both nurses and patients.

In May, for example, Governor Cuomo reported that 12.2% of health care workers in New York city had been diagnosed with COVID-19. Nationwide, more than 164 nurses have died, often because they lacked adequate personal protective equipment. But COVID-19 is not the only dangerous situation. Long-term and psychiatric care facilities, as well as hospitals, are often dangerously understaffed, exposing nurses to violence. Nurses and other workers have been attacked and sometimes killed because they lack necessary resources and protections. Workplace violence is a growing threat which has not been adequately addressed by health care managers and administrators. Danger to patients occurs when nurses are expected to accept assignments outside of their areas of expertise. Nurses cannot care for […]

2020-07-27T07:08:18-04:00July 27th, 2020|Nursing, nursing career, nursing perspective, patient safety|2 Comments
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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.
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