As a way to break the ice and begin a new semes­ter, our Doc­tor of Nurs­ing Prac­tice fac­ulty often ask each stu­dent to intro­duce them­selves by talk­ing about their spe­cialty tracks, the areas they have worked in pre­vi­ously, and where their inter­ests lie. Typ­i­cally, I’ll intro­duce myself as a late bloomer in nurs­ing and describe my jour­ney from a fine arts major, to 10 years of culi­nary expe­ri­ence, and finally to my bachelor’s of sci­ence in nursing.

It is not unusual to imme­di­ately be asked, “How do you go from paint­ing to nursing?!”

As women and men responded to the call for new nurses in response to the short­ages pro­jected over the last 10 years, I know my story is not at all an anom­aly. I have met oncol­ogy nurses with rich and diverse back­grounds such as library sci­ence, music, and biol­ogy. As I cel­e­brate my 5th anniver­sary in nurs­ing this month, I reflect on my jour­ney from art to oncol­ogy. I see these two seem­ingly dis­tinct parts of my work­ing life as parts of a con­tin­u­ous whole, and I con­tinue to be fas­ci­nated by the many ways that my pre­vi­ous expe­ri­ences con­tinue to inform my nurs­ing practice.