Nursing Career at NASA: Interview With a Space Center Nurse

Introduction

One of the remarkable things about the nursing profession is the wide variety of work opportunities available to nurses. This paper highlights information about a unique nursing career. The interview subject is a nurse who works for NASA at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. In her career as a nurse working for NASA, her work experience may seem to be outside of the realm that one traditionally associates with nursing. She has participated in flight training programs, experienced zero-gravity exposure, and has routine contact with astronauts who continue to go into space despite the limitations in the current U.S. space program.

However, her work experience makes it clear that the skills most critical to the performance of her job are her nursing skills. She provides ground support and technical training for astronauts in order to prepare them for any illnesses or injuries they might encounter while in space and unable to access routine healthcare facilities. She also participates in their healthcare management while they are on the ground, so as to best prepare them for their trips into space. This interview subject was chosen because she has the most interesting healthcare career of any nurse encountered in the course of nursing education.

Overview of Career

The nurse knew from a young age that she wanted to enter the profession. She attended nursing school to obtain her BSN and initially believed that degree would be sufficient, beginning her career working as a nurse in a doctor's office. However, she found the work there to be fairly routine, though she genuinely enjoyed nursing. The office also employed a family nurse practitioner who saw many of her own patients and had a higher degree of involvement in patient care. Observing this, the nurse initially considered pursuing an MSN with an emphasis in family nurse practice. It was at that point that she discovered a job opportunity at NASA's Johnson Space Center as part of their healthcare team. That transition changed the course of her career and ultimately motivated her to obtain a comprehensive MSN.

Around the same time, she began working in a secondary capacity. A fellow nurse friend participated in blood draws at driving-while-intoxicated checkpoints during holiday seasons and encouraged her to investigate whether that would be a good way to supplement her income. She went on to work with the Harris County Sheriff's Department, the Houston Police Department, and several smaller departments in surrounding counties and municipalities. On weekends when rates of intoxicated drivers are expected to be elevated, these police departments coordinate checkpoints. Drivers suspected of intoxication are arrested and charged, and, incident to their arrest, their blood is taken for analysis. She is one of the nurses who perform those blood draws. She has found these evenings both lucrative — earning approximately $200 an hour — and professionally interesting.

Graduate Education

Living and working in the Houston area, the nurse pursued her MSN at a local school of nursing. The program offered six different concentrations for MSN students: adult gerontology acute care, adult gerontology primary care, family nurse practitioner, nurse anesthesia, nursing education, and nursing leadership and administration in health systems. The NASA position she sought required an MSN without specifying a concentration. However, because she knew her role would require her to teach nursing skills to astronauts — enabling them to provide one another with basic healthcare while in space — she chose to concentrate in nursing education. She felt this would give her both the appropriate medical background and the theoretical framework needed to perform in that position. She also took a substantial number of courses that overlapped with the nursing leadership and administration concentration, recognizing that her role at NASA would place her in a supervisory capacity.

She subsequently decided to pursue a PhD in nursing. She pursued the doctorate because she saw an opportunity for career expansion at NASA and recognized that she needed a research background to move in that direction. Through her doctoral studies, she learned how to design and conceptualize research projects. The PhD also provided the educational foundation she needed to help write scholarly articles examining how astronauts experience different facets of life in space and how those experiences translate to the broader human experience.

Conclusion

Although her job seems far outside the traditional role of nursing, it was striking to hear that she considers empathy her most critical nursing skill. She reflected on what motivated her to enter the profession. As a child, she had severe allergies and required frequent allergy shots to manage her symptoms. She was terrified of those injections. Some nurses she encountered were brusque and made her feel worse, while others would falsely reassure her that the shot would not hurt. Her best experience was with a nurse who acknowledged that it would hurt, reminded her that the discomfort would be temporary, and used distraction techniques to help her through it. That nurse inspired her to enter nursing and continues to serve as a reminder that empathy is the most critical skill any nurse can possess.

This interview helped illuminate the wide variety of opportunities available to members of the nursing profession. At this point in time, a more traditional nursing career remains the intended path. However, the most valuable takeaway from the interview was that a graduate degree in nursing does not only expand opportunities within traditional nursing roles — it also opens doors to settings far outside the conventional healthcare environment. That insight was reassuring, because a concern had existed that greater specialization might feel limiting. On the contrary, this nurse's career demonstrates that the greater one's education, the wider the variety of opportunities that become available throughout a nursing career.