flying_ace2

That's wonderful!! I haven't gotten to that phase yet - started running last year, had a tibial stress fracture that put running on hold for a while because it wasn't healing like it should have been. I blame it on hauling the dreaded boot around the OR while I should have probably been resting it. Working on building my tolerance back up now - slow and steady wins the race! (and doesn't crack any bones again!)

Good Lord yes - I feel like we got a lecture about losing our licenses at least once a week.....

Always wanted to do this too, what an amazing experience it would be! I hope you get to do it!

This is a great thread, I love reading all these positive goals! My plans...fingers crossed! Within the next 1-2 months: Start a website and blog. Begin my career as a freelance nurse writer, establish my own LLC, and begin to form a client base and expand my writing portfolio. Year 1-2: Transition from my current position in pharma company into the medical writing division of same company. Continue to build experience as a freelance nurse writer. Payoff ALL debt my husband and I have (student loans - ACK) and begin to accumulate wealth/save for retirement. Year 3-4 : Gain experience in professional pharma medical writing with company. Continue to build experience as a freelance nurse writer. Continue to accumulate wealth. Year 5+: Have enough experience in the pharma industry and with freelancing to be able to quit my day job and work freelance for a living, with a goal of making 6 figures a year as a nurse writer. I think this is absolutely achievable with previous experience as a professional medical writer for pharma clients. Side note: sometime within the next 5 years, run a full marathon! Also, take an amazing, extended vacation to somewhere with white sand beaches and drinks with umbrellas in them when husband and I pay off all the debt!!!

Thanks for another informative post about freelancing! I'm still researching the process of becoming a freelancer, and was wondering at what point you created your LLC? Was it immediately when you started writing as a nurse, or before that, or did you wait until you had a few paying jobs before forming your company? When you first started freelancing as a nurse writer, how many queries/LOIs would you typically send out every week/month? I'm sure the number varied depending on your other time commitments. I'm not planning on quitting my day job yet since it might take a little while to build up a client base, but I want to make sure I'm also putting in a good effort to find clients and get paying jobs - my portfolio isn't going to build itself! I'm guessing that the number of queries I should be sending out depends on how quickly I want to find work, but I'd like to know what your experience was as well! I've been looking for clients at the hospitals and healthcare non-profits in my area, and in several of these places all I've been able to find is an email address that goes to the "marketing team" or the "editors". I've also found this with a few online magazines. When you run into this scenario, how do you figure out who to actually email a query to? Do you simply send a LOI to the marketing team email, or do you make a call to dig deeper to see if you can actually get a name of someone to contact? I really appreciate all the information and am so excited to take this step! Thank you for all the great information!

Hahahahaha I leave it to your imagination!

I think I just heard a mic drop.....

Yes, because if we're not NP students going to a "very prestigious school", we're apparently too stupid to be able to interpret research studies. Right.

Funny how some people keep coming here saying there's research to support their claims, and then they never post/share it. Just an interesting observation......

Second this - gonna need references from peer-reviewed, scientific journals/research articles for alllllllllll of that.......

Of COURSE there's an evil plot!!!! I simply cannot divulge our plans for WORLD DOMINATION here, but you should know that it involves sharks with LASERS on their heads!!!!! Unless you give us.......

Ahhhhh thank you. Can't keep up with the vernacular. *Goes to shake fist angrily at those damn kids and demand that they get off my lawn*

Hahahahahaha yep, I'm so on fleek!! Or I'm fly!!! Or whatever the Hell the kids are saying these days!!! *also, if someone could clarify what "on fleek" actually means, I'd really appreciate it. I have no idea.....

Well if you're saying I'm pretty I definitely thank you! *blushes* **also joking!** Joking aside, I'm not a pharma rep (thank God, I have been around those people and would never, ever want that job) and I'm not a clinical research nurse. I have no idea if my looks had anything to do with me being hired here - I would like to think not, because it makes my inner feminist angry. I like to think I was hired based on my abilities, my past job performance and responsibilities (even before nursing), my great references and my excellent interview skills. Oh, and also because I had a friend from nursing school who was already working here and put in the good word! I definitely understand your point however, and am thinking specifically of those pharma reps mentioned earlier. I've never met a rep who could be called "unattractive" in the way that our society at large seems to define the word - they all fit a certain body mold with specific looks and personality traits that "make them more attractive". I can't speak to the clinical research nurse side of things - I've never been in the company labs with patients, and had no interaction with them in the OR at the hospital. I think it is a sad, unfortunate fact of life in the society we find ourselves in, just like it's a sad, unfortunate fact of life that men make more money than women do (typically), simply because they have.........extra equipment. Does it mean I agree with it? No. Does it mean that I still see it everyday and become frustrated and discouraged by it? Yes.

Thank you for your first point. I completely agree and think that anyone who doesn't think vaccines are necessary or a good idea for society and the human race in general are probably delusional enough to believe in something like Big Foot. Regarding your second point - CRAP!!!!! You figured us out, I must now report back to my Evil Corporate Overlords to see how we deal with this slight inconvenience in our plans for WORLD DOMINATION. (Yeah, heavy sarcasm, but seriously? I can't believe this topic is still even debatable at this point......)

I am also extremely proud to work for the company I am a part of. Obviously I can't go into specifics, but we are part of a team developing revolutionary treatments for chronic, devastating diseases like cancer, Hep C and Sickle Cell (just to name a few). The work is absolutely amazing and I am proud to be a part of a team helping to bring these drugs to market. Are these drugs expensive? Depending on the drug, absolutely. Do these drugs help to make the quality of life better for millions of people around the world on a daily basis? Absolutely. While I understand that there are obvious issues concerning cost and availability of these medications, it is incredible to me that we have these drugs and are finding new ones every year. I'm happy to be doing my own small part in making them available to those that need them.

Worst job was during my freshman year of college. I worked in the University call center, calling parents, alumni, etc. to solicit "financial donations" for the school. Only had to work 12 hours a week and could pick the hours, but the abuse I got from the people on the other end of the line was unbelievable. Most memorable was the husband of the lady I'd called, who yelled out in the background of our call "tell that b**ch to get a real job!!!"

I can't speak to the administrative side of things, but it is absolutely possible to get your BSN/ASN and work in an office setting if that is what interests you. I only worked in acute care for a year and a few months, and then transitioned into the pharma industry where I'm in an office with no face to face patient contact at all (I do still talk to patients and providers by phone all day however). I really enjoy my work and find it interesting, and I plan on staying here for the foreseeable future!

Had an instructor that was completely preoccupied with the way we made beds. I'm talking slightly obsessed with bed making technique. Don't get me wrong, I personally enjoy a neatly made bed, but I'm not gonna talk about nothing else but that for a week during our skills lab....

Could not agree more!!!!

Thank you for this article! It is especially relevant to me today as I was thinking (again) about transitioning into medical writing on the way into work!

Or for something particularly nasty/stinky, the benzoin smear AND peppermint oil on the mask! BLEH!

This was my first thought!!! Not sure what that says about me, but this cracked me up!!! :lol2:

That's what I'm trying to do right now.......give. me. strength..........

And how old is OP? Because this is all making me have unpleasant flash-backs of middle school. :***: