Welcome to NursePub, a place where lived experience meets evidence, where stories matter, and where the wild still speaks…if you know how to listen. I’m so glad you’re here.
I’m Karen – a nurse, educator, PhD, and lifelong writer. I’ve spent nearly four decades at the bedside in emergency and trauma settings. I am passionate about teaching and I teach both in clinical and university settings. I’ve spent just as long chasing stories, seeking meaning from life, and learning to live in tune with what matters. I’m an adoptee, shaped in ways I’m still discovering, both by the presence and the absence of family.
This space is something I’ve dreamed about for a long time. Here’s what you’ll find at NursePub:
🩺 Nurse to Nurse – reflections on clinical nursing, nursing education, compassion, compassion fatigue, burnout, and purpose.
🌲 Field Notes – musings from Idaho’s wild places, birds spotted, trails hiked, and rivers fished (I’m only in my third summer of fly fishing, so there will be some flailing along with the casting).
✍️ The Writing Life – Academic writing and publishing – Yes. But with a touch of Dark Americana – fiction rooted in real bloodlines, haunted legacies, and the thin veil between history and myth.
🧬 Adoption & Identity – personal notes and stories about adoption, adoption search, DNA discoveries, secrets and lies, and the emotional archaeology of identity.
Each post will be real, readable, and (hopefully) a little resonant.
In the end, I hope my words will touch the readers’ hearts…offering meaning and inspiration.
If you – like me – feel your identity – and your voice – come from similar and juxtaposing circumstances – nurse, teacher, writer, mother, grandmother, fly fisherwoman, and wilderness wanderer – then perhaps we’ve found a kindred space.
Thank you for joining me at the beginning.
Warmly,
Karen
@nursepub