“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 school librarian suggested I become a nurse. She felt I had a natural aptitude for the profession. As an adult chaperone on school-sponsored tours of college campuses, she made sure certain colleges with nursing programs were part of our itinerary—pushing me forward from the group and outing me to nursing professors as a potential candidate.

A typical teenager, I would have nothing to do with it. I was going to be a writer, and begin as a journalist. To this goal, I started, coedited, and illustrated a high school literary “magazine,” painstakingly typing submissions onto mimeograph paper, and hand-turning the copies for publication.

The lasting importance of direct patient contact.

I’ve written before about how I eventually ended up in nursing school. I have been a nurse for over 30 years. Despite invitations to apply for nurse management positions, requiring that I complete my BSN, I went to art school instead. I have no regrets about this decision. Through a variety of nursing opportunities, over the years I have learned something very important about myself: The further away I get from direct patient contact, the less I enjoy being a nurse.

My school librarian recognized—before I did—that for me nursing is as much a vocation as being an artist and writer.

Having more than one vocation is just fine.

Despite living in a society that expects people to choose and brand themselves by a single talent, I remain an artist and writer, while working 40-plus hours a week as a nurse. Some of the attention I’ve achieved as an artist and writer is enhanced because I am also a nurse.

For me, the three vocations are inseparable. I experience their relationship as a juggling act. Some days, nursing requires all of my attention and energy, so art and writing become the two balls I toss into the air while finessing the third. But at other times, nursing only requires that I palm it back and forth—allowing me to focus on art making, and writing.

While I can imagine someday retiring from nursing, to make art and write full time, I suspect I will always be a nurse. It’s in my nature. I’m grateful I’ve never had to choose between my vocations.