What do you do as a Nurse Writer?

Are nurse writers still healthcare workers? Do we still help patients? Or are we something different entirely? I’m here to tell you: Of course we are still nurses that hold a valid, unexpired nursing license.

Do not let anyone else tell you any different. This article goes over the mental battle nurses feel over leaving the bedside.

Looking for more advice on how to leave the bedside? Check out my course here.

Still a nurse

If you have an active nursing license, you’re still a nurse. It doesn’t matter what your old coworkers, your family members, or that random person on the internet says. The state you work in recognizes your ability to help people and provide care. And most states don’t say anything about hands-on care.

Check with your local Board of Nursing for the requirements when you renew your license. My geographical area only has to complete continuing education. That’s it. And I’m a nurse.

With the rise of telemedicine, there are plenty of providers working with their patients online without ever touching them. And what about nurse leaders? They still have their nursing licenses. Many of them don’t provide direct patient care. Would anyone question the validity of their titles?

We’ve worked so hard for our credentials. Don’t let anyone take them away from you. Especially someone without the authority to do so. And if you need help explaining why you are a nurse, keep reading.

Client education

As a nurse writer, you may be providing client education for your target audience. You can also think of your target audience as your patients. A nurse educator doesn’t usually provide hands-on care to their patients. They’re not doing bed baths or dropping IV lines. They’re focusing on increasing the health of their clients through education.

Nurse writing is the same way. You’re providing accurate, timely education for your clients. Instead of reading a random article by a non-healthcare professional, they have you! A real nurse! It’s a beautiful thing.

Supporting Bedside Clinicians

As a nurse writer, you’re supporting your bedside healthcare workers and clinicians. We all know how busy the bedside is. Clinicians and nurses just don’t have the time they need to educate every client about their disease process.

I remember when I was getting questions about a particular heart monitor system. I understood how it worked, but it was dense. And my patient just had surgery. It was a lot to teach him and expect him to retain that stressed state.

So, I downloaded a patient education brochure with the important topics for him to know. Who had to write that patient education brochure? A nurse writer. That could be you.

So you’re not leaving the bedside. You’re just helping them in a different way.

Helping More People

As a nurse writer, I can help more people than I ever could staying at the bedside. And that was a beautiful thing to me. At the bedside, I could only help the patients I was assigned to during my 12-hour shift. So maybe 5-22 depending on the specialty.

As a writer, my articles have reached thousands. As a medical writer, I can work on the documents to get a medication approved. That medication can improve the lives of millions.

So if your driving factor is wanting to help people, writing can help facilitate that. You’re not helping fewer people when you step back from the bedside. You’re actually helping more.

Bedside Doesn’t Equate to Nursing

Being at the bedside is not the only qualifying factor for nurses. Feel free to remind people of that if they say otherwise. There are plenty of accredited nurses that aren’t at the bedside.

Some examples include:

Case managers
Nurse leaders
CEOs
Legal nurse consultants
Insurance nurses

All of these professionals hold nursing licenses without having to physically touch a patient.

Summary

If you choose to leave the bedside to write, you are not leaving your patients and coworkers behind. You’re probably helping more patients than you were before. And you’re picking up the slack when your previous coworkers don’t have the time to perform patient education.

Nurse writing is just another subspecialty of nursing. And an incredibly valuable one at that. I don’t know about you, but I would take a health article written over a nurse than an article written over an English major anyday. We are bringing back well-researched, accurate medical content.