Okay, first of all, let me say I am amazed that I was able to register the username "Weirdo" to AllNurses.com, a website that has been in existence, what, 15 years at least? That's crazy! I am the only weirdo here? That's basically how I feel at school and in my career.
Anyway, I'm a student, who will be graduating in December with two associates degrees—one in Nursing and one in History. This whole time I've been in school, I've been doing freelance writing work for various print and web sources around town (not about nursing, but about events around town and such), and I've also been working as an aide on a surgical cardiac split advanced care/med-surg unit. I'll be enrolling in an RN to BSN program upon graduation.
Anyway, I don't really get off on trauma, nor do I find excitement in the grind of a 12-hour shift with 6 patients all high acuities or any of that. I'm more of a "path of least resistance" kind of guy.
I'm wondering if anybody here, or anybody in the world, has a similar skillset. Anyone study Nursing AND History... I mean, I know a lot of people go into nursing after studying history because there's no money in history, but does anybody DO anything with both of these fields of study? I'm thinking with my background in writing there may be something I can do. Every nursing textbook has, like, that chapter about Florence Nightengale... who writes that? A quick google of "Nurse Historian" comes up with nothing. So what can I do? Also, I want to make a lot of money, and I'm not opposed to going to graduate school after getting my BSN or anything like that.
So, is there anyone else out there similar to me? Or am I seriously the only weirdo out there?
There are a lot of us "Nursing &" people... my first degree was a BA in Journalism.. then Nursing. Nurses, like most physicians I know are very well-rounded people. Lots of artists, athletes, musicians, writers, etc. We do all sorts of things besides dangle our stethescopes.
I have a dual Bachelors in Comparative Religions & Psych and am currently pursuing a nursing career. I also work as a freelance writer and can assure you there are plenty of writing opportunities if you are willing to put in your dues with the grunt work to build up your writing portfolio. On the history/nursing front - one of my history professors was actually a trained nurse. She worked for a bit and then became very interested in Florence Nightingale, she then pursued a degree in history and ended up with her Ph.D. She was one of the best professors I ever had and Has a great career as a college professor. She was from England, so I have a feeling her schooling path was a bit different. That being said - it is a long road from associates to Ph.D in history - and then the job prospects after that can be very grim. My husband has his Ph.D in English and 3 years after completing his Ph.D he landed a professorship - he is one of the lucky ones.
Lpn here with a bachelors in history. I pursued that degree because of my love for the subject. Doing absolutely nothing with it. But during a game of bar jeopardy during happy hour at the bar with some of my nursing coworkers and a few residents who came along....i slayed during a whole slew of questions on the civil war. Impressed one of the residents so much that he asked me out. So was it worth it? Yes!
Got the degree later in life because I knew that with the History degree, I would need to go onto education, law or library science. Or continue on to obtain and MA.
I digress, I have had some very interesting discussions with patients over the last few years on the history of disease, LTC, and the labour movemeyin my province.
Being able to earn a living as a nurse historian? Very specialized niche market. Buy a lottery ticket instead.
Either focus on history and where it might take you or become a nurse with a passion for history in your downtime.
Specializes in Crit Care; EOL; Pain/Symptom; Gero.
Some great ideas! Thank you so much. I definitely will be looking into the AAHN. I didn't realize that organization existed.
I earned a BA in American Studies in the late 1970s - love the discipline of social history, loved what I learned. No jobs.
Entered nursing school in 1980 to be able to earn a living. Discovered I love nursing. Fast-forward to 1993; entered a PhD program at a ranked university. Intended to combine my baccalaureate-level education in social history with nursing by studying nursing labor and empowerment during WWII years as operationalized via Cadet Nurse Corps.
Was strongly encouraged to *also* have a strong concurrent clinical specialty, because even as a nurse historian, there is little opportunity to sit in an ivory tower and think deep thoughts. Clinical practice and clinical research is where it's at, for PhD-prepared nurses.
Abandoned nursing history as a dissertation focus and returned to utilizing my critical care knowledge and expertise to drive my doctoral study.
Moral of story: poor to non-existent full-time opportunities for even doctorally-prepared nurse historians. Need a side gig to make it work.
This thread is interesting. I earned a BA in history in 2007 and am currently earning a BSN. I think I am the only one in my entire cohort who actually enjoyed the "history of nursing" portion in first semester:woot:
Fun thread. I'm a bit of an odd ball. I've managed, most of my career, to only work part time.Currently, I am Per Diem at 2 jobs and making my own schedule.
My thing was being frugal, paying off my house, plus investing in a rental house, and learning, over the years, how to pick out excellent tenants who appreciate that I'm a wonderful landlady. The rental home is paid for as well.
So, get your one year of indentured servitude first year of nursing out of the way and then, get a second per diem job, then go fully per diem. Use nursing to fund your dream.
I , personally, find nursing interesting, but a steady diet of it, with unit politics and personalities, drives me bonkers.
One gal I work with invested in a marijuana farm and is using nursing to fund that. Think of nursing as the back up plan that everyone should have who has an unconventional dream.
Oh Grasshopper. You have SO much to learn. Turns out, you cannot dictate who responds to threads. I'm looking forward to reading on....
HeySis,
It is with all due respect that I say, "well duh." I don't expect to get rich, and I don't have an aversion to long hours and hard work. My problem, and it may be specific to my hospital/unit, is we are constantly understaffed, have terrible ratios, and really sick patients, without decent compensation. I know for a fact that people who've left the unit to do home health care make more money with less stress, so that's what I plan to do when I graduate.
Enough about that though.
From now on, please no one reply to this thread unless they are a fellow Weirdo like me. That is, a nursing history nerd who makes money doing something with the combination of nursing and history, or a writer who either has a side hustle writing about nursing,or for whom nurse writing is their main gig. I'm looking for my people! I know they're out there somewhere! I have dreams of sitting on my couch, making a modest but reasonable living writing in my underwear all day.
HouTx, BSN, MSN, EdD
9,051 Posts
There are a lot of us "Nursing &" people... my first degree was a BA in Journalism.. then Nursing. Nurses, like most physicians I know are very well-rounded people. Lots of artists, athletes, musicians, writers, etc. We do all sorts of things besides dangle our stethescopes.