After specializing in combat trauma and military suicide for a decade, I took a break from psych nursing and got a job working on a rehab unit caring for people who were recovering from knee and hip replacements. My colleagues thought it was nice that I was finally going to do some “real nursing.”

I joined the US Army Nurse Corps in 2004 when I was 46. I figured, I survived my ex-husband for 18 years, I can deal with the Taliban.

Psychiatric nurses are the guardian angels you had no idea you needed in this world.

Heading into work as a psych nurse is just like riding a bicycle…except your hair is on fire and you’re heading for a cliff.