With hundreds of roles bedside and thousands of positions that leverage clinical nursing experience, nursing is the land of opportunity. But how do you find out if you would like a role, and if so, how to get there? Well, how about we have nurses share their real-life experiences ☺️ This isn’t another dry as toast 🍞rundown of a job. Your personality, your voice, your insights get to shine here. 💯

Why Your Voice?

• Your experience is current and unique

• Your story has insights nurses need (no matter where you are at in your nursing career)

• You want to help resource and encourage other nurses

• Because you will have fun

  Feel no anxiety here. We have a simple template you can follow ⬇and David Pinkerton will work with you every step from rough rough draft to ready to read.

Here’s How 👟

Use the format below to write between 600-1,000 words as a rough draft.
Scroll through this page for helpful explanations and examples. Send us your rough draft and David will act as editor, keeping your voice intact, while helping search engines find the piece and achieving continuity throughout the blog overall.

Start With What You do in Nursing

Tell Us What the Work is Like

What You Like & Drawbacks

What Traits do You Need or What Personalities Thrive

How to Get Here

Start With What You do in Nursing

Working in the Emergency Room is like ….
When people think about Pediatric Oncology…
I never expected to be in Case Management, I thought …. but I’ve found it’s just right

Example from Geoff Ibe ER
When people think of the ER, I imagine they think of the hit TV show. Complete chaos, dramatic music in the background, and blood spewing everywhere. It's not like that at all… well, kinda. The chaos is there, but chaotically controlled between rooms. The music is playing, but it's a symphony of ventilators, heart monitors, IV pumps, providers hollering orders to the unit clerks, and patients screaming in pain (and for turkey sandwiches and a blanket).

Or start with a specific story that inspired you and will run through your nursing experience

Example Jake Johns PMHNP
Ten years ago, before I was a nurse, I was a case manager. I was in the middle of a home visit, sitting with a Seriously Mentally ill patient.

I looked around the house, taking in the accumulated trappings of a family's life, and my gaze rested on a picture of my patient from high school, wearing his letterman jacket. That moment hit me right across the face.  

The person in front of me was a regular high school kid! Just a couple of years ago, he looked happy and confident. And a few years later, the tragedy of Schizophrenia had enveloped him. 

Tell Us What the Work is Like

Give us what only someone in the work would know. Have fun showing off your in-depth knowledge. Help nurses understand terms, procedures, equipment, etc.
This is a blog for nurses written by nurses, so don’t shy away from nursing-specific language.

Example Stacy Stravitz Peds CVICU
The technology, medicine, and surgical repairs for these tiny hearts are mind-blowingly cool. 😲 We bust out the oscillator on occasion, there’s ECMO on the unit more often than not, and we use assist devices like the Berlin Heart, Heartmate, and on occasion the Total Artificial Heart.

Mind-blowing, complicated, and touchy. 

What You Like & Drawbacks

What do you love? What is really hard about this position?

What Traits do You Need or What Personalities Thrive

Think bullet points here. What is crucial to be successful and enjoy this position. The personality that loves the fast-pace of the ER probably isn’t the same that wants the 1 to 1 highest acuity ICU. Help nurses understand who thrives here.

How to Get Here

How did you get here? Is it hard to break into? If so, tell nurses tips on how to skill up to have a shot at this kind of role. Pretend a nurse you really like wants to get into this role and doesn’t know how. Give them the inside scoop.

Write a Fun Bio

Example
👩‍⚕️Hi I'm Stacy; as an experienced BSN, RN, CCRN in AZ, I'm excited to be a part of building a better way for RNs and NPs to be precisely matched with nursing positions that really fit them. I’m fueled by oat milk lattes, telling people I do CrossFit, and whisky 🥃 neat.

We are big fans of the free version of Grammarly - it helps with spelling and grammar and speeds up your writing process while adding confidence.

We’ve found it is easy to use Google Docs to share documents. When you are ready to share your piece, just paste into a Google Doc and share. This way any edits and comments can be live and accessible anywhere.

We are excited for you to share your experiences on the EARN blog!