Notes on Freedom in Healthcare

Why I Walked Away from the Clinical Medicine and Haven’t Looked Back

There was a moment, sometime in the thick of 2021, about a year into the pandemic, when I knew I wouldn’t last. Not like this. Not in a system so broken it had begun to harden the most empathetic parts of me. I was a nurse working through the chaos of COVID-19, and like so many of my colleagues in healthcare, I began to question everything I thought I knew about my career in medicine.

At the same time, I was finishing my doctoral degree to become a Family Nurse Practitioner. I had reached a point that, on paper, should have felt like the pinnacle. I had done the thing: years of schooling, credentials, the so-called summit of the nursing path.

But when my new degree was finally in hand, I wasn’t ready. Or maybe, I was finally honest enough to admit I didn’t want that version of the path. I knew continuing in clinical practice would burn me out. And I refused to spend years in a role that was quietly eroding my joy, my creativity, my capacity to live a full, expansive life.

So I chose something different.
I chose academia. I chose teaching.

For a while, I carried shame around it - this idea that if I wasn’t “using” my degree the traditional way, I was somehow wasting it. That choosing a more flexible, “soft” path meant I was letting people down - or worse, proving I wasn’t enough.

But here’s what I’ve come to believe:

Freedom isn’t failure. It’s reclamation.

Teaching gave me room to breathe again. It lets me stay rooted in healthcare while exploring the parts of myself that had been buried under scrubs and 12-hour shifts: the creative parts, the expressive parts, the curious and inspired parts. I get to pour into students who will carry the torch forward with the same heart I once brought to the bedside.

And I get to travel. To write. To create. To live.

Freedom, to me, looks like choice. It’s crafting a life that holds space for all of you - not just the job title version. It’s saying no to burnout as a badge of honor. It’s deciding that your well-being and your joy are non-negotiable.

So if you’re at a crossroads, if you’ve been sitting with that quiet, aching knowing that something isn’t working - that you want more, or different, or just ease, this is your permission slip.

Not every path is linear and not every version of success means staying in a system that asks you to shrink to survive.

You’re allowed to pivot.
To choose again.
To value peace over prestige.
To rewrite the story.

Sometimes the bravest thing you can do is let go of the plan, and choose what actually makes you feel like yourself.

That’s what I did - and I’m not looking back.

For more, catch me on Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube for more travel, everyday magic, and the art of living fully.

As always, Ciao for Now.

Jackie