The Nurse and the Nun with Linda Wick, DNP, APRN
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How did a childhood hospital experience inspire Linda to become a nurse?
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This is the Nocturnus. I'm Emily Silverman. Today I'm joined by Linda Wick, a nurse practitioner with more than forty years of experience in nursing. Linda's path began when she was just six years old, sitting at her brother's bedside and watching nurses care for him after a devastating car accident. That early exposure to the compassion and skill of nursing set her on a lifelong journey through intensive care, nephrology, and leadership. In this episode, Linda shares the story of reuniting with Sister Helen, one of her toughest teachers from nursing school. It's a story Linda told live on stage at Intersections, an event produced by the Center for the Art of Medicine in Minneapolis. In my conversation with Linda, we discuss the evolution of nursing education from the days of Benedictine nuns to today's advanced practice roles, the differences between nursing and medical frameworks of care and where they overlap.
What decades at the bedside have taught Linda about resilience, integrity, and the healing power of attitude? And how a dramatic reunion with one of her toughest teachers, the nun, Sister Helen, helped her to make peace with some words that she never forgot. But before we get to the conversation, let's take a listen to Linda's story.
So when I was six years old, I spent a lot of time in hospitals, not because I was a patient. But because my older brother, who was eighteen, had been in a terrible car accident. I lived in rural Minnesota, which meant that he got taken to a larger city, Minneapolis, to be cared for. Because of my age, my mother took me with oftentimes to come sit at the hospital with him. As I watched the nurses take care of them and the doctors come and go, I quickly realized who had the real power in this system. Who was the nurses? They were dressed in starch white at the time, because I'm old. The white hats. They had it all going on. I would watch them take care of my brother. Prevent him from getting bed sores, encouraging him when he needed encouragement.
And also He gave him a shoulder to cry on when they had the conversation that he might lose both of his legs because of his accident. So I decided at six years old. That's what I want to do. I want to be one of those women. I was a little bit intrigued by the white dresses. And the hat. But I was mostly aware of their power. So fast forward 20 years and I'm in college. I am living my life. I am having the time of my life. And I was the first out of seven kids to go to college in my family. So that alone felt like a little bit of an accomplishment. And so I went to a Catholic college and I'm attending a class, which was skills class for those nurses in the audience. And these are the days of slides, right? We didn't have any smart boards back in the eighties.
And because it was a Catholic college, I had a nun that was teaching this class. She was in full habit, Sister Helen. That day we were actually learning how to put in urinary catheters. So Sister Helen is standing in front of the big screen behind her with a supersized penis. And being the quiet person I am I burst out laughing. Систер Хелен вознаст. Because I started laughing and the other kids started laughing. So she walks over to the light switch and she switches it on and she looks at me and she goes, Linda Nelson, do you know something about the male anatomy you'd like to share with the rest of the class? Ін myд, ат, Ву, а пробьено морген, систе. But I knew enough not to say that.
After class, she pulls me aside and she gives me a lecture. She tells me I'm too uh glib and that I am not taking this seriously enough. And she ended with, You're gonna kill people. And I thought to myself, wow.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
How did a childhood hospital experience inspire Linda to become a nurse?
0:00–5:14
2
What was it like learning nursing skills from the strict nuns at St. Scholastica?
5:14–8:51
3
Why does Linda still remember the “you’ll kill patients” warning from Sister Helen?
8:51–13:53
4
What lessons did Linda learn from her first drug‑error mistake?
13:53–18:32
5
How did Linda transition into nephrology and what challenges did she face as a new NP?
18:32–22:48
6
What happened during the emergency dialysis incident that reunited Linda with Sister Helen?
22:48–28:36
7
How did the reunion with Sister Helen help Linda reconcile the harsh words she heard?
28:36–33:10
8
What advice does Linda give to aspiring nurses about resilience, integrity, and purpose?
33:10–38:19