This issue's special feature proclaims the complexity and variety nursing has to offer. One of the less publicized qualities of nursing is the immense diversity it offers. In this special Essence of Nursing issue, meet more than a dozen nurses who share a strong desire to help others yet have shaped their individual nursing careers based on their own passions and visions.

The array of career paths among these nurses demonstrates the expansive boundaries and flexibility of the nursing profession - a profession which has allowed them to do extraordinary things and become much more than they ever imagined.

International & National

You'll meet arson researcher Dian Williams, PhD, RN, LNC, DF-IAFN, who began her career as a psychiatric bedside nurse. She never dreamed she would end up founder, president and CEO of The Center for Arson Research and would be the go-to expert for inquiries about the aberrant behavior of those who set fires.

Self-effacing Carole Muto, BSN, RN, CPAN, a bedside nurse in the gamma knife department at Jefferson Hospital for Neuroscience, Philadelphia, sees heroes all around her, but doesn't consider herself one. Her dedication to excellence at the bedside is the result of strong personal commitment.

Making a Difference

Nurses often say they chose the profession to "make a difference" in people's lives.

Patty Gerrity, PhD, RN, FAAN, can shut her eyes each night knowing she achieves exactly that. Gerrity heads the groundbreaking 11th Street Family Health Services Center, north Philadelphia, which provides care to some 4,000 low-income patients a year.

Native Nigerian Rita Adeniran, MSN, RN, CMAC, CNAA,BC, is a global nurse ambassador at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing introducing acclimating nurses from around the world to U.S. practices.

Collectively, the nurses at Tower 4-Maternity Unit at York Hospital, York, PA, make a difference. They recently embraced a 4-week extended stay antepartum patient who had little family support. The unit surprised her with a baby shower.

A former marine and now a Navy Reservist, flight nurse Cmdr. James F. Armstrong, BSN, RN, CCRN, saw combat in Vietnam and more recently has provided nursing care in Kuwait, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

Despite numerous barriers, a large portion of Philadelphia native Mary Hale, MSN, RNC, SRN, SCM, career was spent helping to establish Uganda's first postgraduate pediatric nursing program during the oppressive reign of Idi Amin.

The New Breed

Reading about three newly graduated nurses gives us high hopes for the future of the profession.

As University of Pennsylvania nursing students, Bianca Gonzalez and Pheobe Askie, BSN, RN found there was no go-to publication on student nursing research. They banded together and created the Journal of Student Nursing Research. The endeavor lives on after their graduation due to a dedicated band of faculty, students and staff.

As new nurse Nancy Ho, MSN, RN, studies for her PhD, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing and the Johnson & Johnson Campaign for Nursing's Future named her a Minority Nurse Faculty Scholar - an elite designation currently held by just four other future educators nationwide.

The Art of Teaching

These student nurses could never have achieved what they did without the guidance of great teachers of all forms.

Take Jaime Pitner, RN, CEN, MICP, assistant chief of emergency medical services and coordinator of the specialty care transport program at AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center, Atlantic City and Galloway, NJ. He teaches classes and speaks at conferences about holistic health. In addition to smoking cessation, he also teaches healthy eating, stress management, t'ai chi, guided imagery and meditative techniques.

Mary Lou Kanaskie, MS, RN,C, AOCN, clinical nurse educator at Penn State Hershey Medical Center, can boast many achievements in nursing education. But she holds dear a casual comment from a peer who said Kanaskie's support kept her in the profession and thriving.

Patient First

Some nurses have found their niche in serving a particular patient population.

In spite of numerous recognitions, Carolyn Weaver, MSN, RN, AOCN, patient education coordinator at Fox Chase Cancer Center, Philadelphia, says quality time with patients is the best part of her job.

Cheryl Dellasega, PhD, GNP, a professor at Penn State University College of Medicine, Hershey, PA, has found her comfort zone in writing about certain patient populations. Surviving Ophelia, her first book published in 2001, tackles raising at-risk teenage girls.

Darral Van Istendal, BSN, RN, prayed long and hard before deciding to pursue his second career, nursing. He is now a med/surg nurse who considers nursing his new family.

Those featured in the 2008 Essence of Nursing special issue have taken the profession of nursing and molded it in very different, but practical ways, creating careers that are as varied as they are satisfying. But more than being just a profession, nursing is tightly woven into who they are as people - exemplified by the way they think, care, lead, teach and consistently continue to learn and improve. It is their essence.

- Gail O. Guterl