From Nurse to Author by Nancy J. Cohen

In my early days, I wrote poetry, short stories, a Shakespearian-type play and multiple travel journals. But my main ambition was to become a nurse. I wanted to help relieve a patient’s anxiety about being sick and in the hospital. To this end, I worked as a paid nurse’s aide during my college summers.

I didn’t count on the rigors of professional nurse training. I’d chosen a bachelor’s degree program at University of Rochester in upstate New York. The first two years were liberal arts studies along with required subjects on the regular campus. The latter included microbiology and chemistry. I was exempted from the language requirement because I was fluent in French at the time. Instead, I chose to take classic French literature…in French. For physical education, I chose judo and skiing. I joined a sorority and learned to be independent.

It was during that time that I took a vocational aptitude test. I was having doubts about becoming a nurse. Imagine my lack of surprise at the results. The test showed I wanted to be an Author. But it wasn’t the right time to go after this dream.

In my junior year, I moved into Helen Wood Hall, the female-only dormitory on a separate medical campus. Our intense training began. Days and nights were filled with nursing studies and clinical practice. This wasn’t for the faint of heart. In fact, I fainted during the morning briefing on my first day at the ward. My nerves got the better of me. But I picked myself up and carried on.

That could be said for the rest of my training. I nearly flunked two courses. Labor and Delivery was one of them. We didn’t have the technology available today. During a woman’s labor, we had to listen to the fetal heartbeat through a scope applied to the abdomen. I got so nervous that I couldn’t hear it. I’m afraid I wasn’t much help to those patients. Nonetheless, I managed to scrape by with a passing grade.

Pediatrics was the other class that nearly got me kicked out. I had no younger siblings and had never babysat, so I had no experience with children, let alone sick kids. I did okay with older children but not with newborns or babies. Treating a baby was infinitely more difficult than a grown-up. I felt lost with an infant. My instructors must have realized I was trying my best because again I barely passed. And so I made it through nursing school, proud to graduate and take the exams to become a Registered Nurse. This determination to succeed was my first major lesson in becoming a writer.

One of my classmates, whose name we’ll change to Hannah for privacy reasons, and I celebrated our graduation by getting a Eurailpass and roaming through Europe for six weeks. This was an amazing trip that I recorded in my travel journals. Upon our return, we settled into jobs as staff nurses at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, having decided to room together. We got an apartment in subsidized housing near the hospital.

Thus began The Year from Hell. I went through what we called “culture shock” in making the transition from nursing school to reality. It was difficult to realize I didn’t have endless time to spend with each patient, that I had certain chores to get done, and that I was ultimately responsible for my actions. I was no longer a student who could fall back on a teacher or more experienced nurse for advice.

It didn’t help that a truly Mean Girl was in charge of newbies on our medical floor. She made my life miserable, as did my roommate with whom I no longer got along. I went home and cried every night. The dreadful winter weather added to my misery. But I was determined to stick it out for a full year. I wasn’t a quitter, and I wanted that first year of experience on my resume. I learned what was necessary and sought out new opportunities to move ahead. This attitude helped me later when I received rejections for my writing projects. Despite discouragement, you keep going forward.

I decided to move to Florida, where my parents had a condo and the weather was sunny. Three years later, I headed out to San Francisco to earn my master’s degree at UCSF prior to becoming a cardiovascular clinical nurse specialist. While in grad school, I bought a book called “Structuring Your Novel” to learn how to write a full-length work of fiction. This began my conversion from nurse to author. Thanks to my husband’s support, I retired from nursing and wrote full-time while raising our children.

My nursing experiences prepared me for becoming a writer. You have to forge ahead in the face of rejection and keep working toward the goal of getting published. Having faith in yourself is critical. You also need a willingness to learn and improve your craft. Determination and perseverance will get you through the tough times.

I needed these strengths when each book I wrote got rejected until I had six books in my drawer. CIRCLE OF LIGHT, the seventh book I’d written, finally got accepted by Dorchester. This was my first published title, and it won the HOLT Medallion Award. I’ve just reissued the entire Light-Years Series trilogy, bringing me full circle back to the beginning of my career. To date, I have twenty-nine published works.

When you hear the advice, “Write what you know,” this doesn’t apply to actual knowledge. You can research any topic. The adage applies to your emotions. Life experiences are more important than any skills you possess when you decide to write. You can be trained in the craft of writing, but you need the fortitude to succeed. And you can only get this through the pages of life.

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Nancy J. Cohen writes the Bad Hair Day Mysteries featuring South Florida hairstylist Marla Vail. Her books have won numerous awards, including the instructional guide, Writing the Cozy Mystery. A featured speaker at libraries, conferences and community events, Nancy is a past president of Florida Romance Writers and Mystery Writers of America, Florida Chapter. When not busy writing, she enjoys cooking, fine dining, cruising, and visiting Disney World. 

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Tags: featured, women writers

Category: On Writing