Rasa Kabaila says becoming a nurse was "the best decision I've made in my life".
But after seeing new graduates suffering burnout or dropping out, she wanted to help people to better understand the profession — so she wrote a book.
Ms Kabaila said the book was geared toward those considering a pathway into nursing to promote the profession "because we need more nurses, especially after the pandemic".
"This is the kind of book I wish I could have read before I became a nurse — and it would have had me feeling better prepared … or steering clear of becoming a nurse," she said.
"Although you do your university degree, nothing really has you feeling prepared, when you're learning from a book, even though you do placements, it's just not enough.
Ms Kabaila worked for 10 years in the public sector and now works as a mental health nurse practitioner from her home practice in the regional NSW town of Port Macquarie.
With a higher qualification than a registered nurse, a nurse practitioner is permitted to diagnose patients and prescribe certain treatments and medications without a physician's supervision.
Ms Kabaila drew on that experience, and the experience of other nurses through interviews, to write the book Put Some Concrete in Your Breakfast: Tales from Contemporary Nursing.
The book follows Ms Kabaila's own journey, from the challenges she faced in her early career and mistakes she made along the way, to where she has landed now as a nurse practitioner.
She wanted to capture the honest and raw stories she felt were important for new or aspiring nurses to hear.
"Instead of the kind of dulled-down version of the story we might give people because we're scared of shocking or offending or upsetting them," she said.
One of the stories in the book is from a nurse who grew up in Zimbabwe, Melerine Mbegabulawe, who studied mental health nursing with Ms Kabaila and is now a nurse practitioner colleague.
"What drove me into nursing was my mum died from a basic illness that no-one should be dying from — tonsillitis," Ms Mbegabulawe said.
"She died within four days of getting into the hospital and that really broke my heart."
Ms Mbegabulawe said the "cultural misinformation from family" made navigating medical treatment for her mother challenging.
She hopes her story in Ms Kabaila's book inspires future nurses and promotes the need for greater cultural support in the hospital system.
"That's what we want our nursing force to become because patient outcomes are really important," she said.
Why nurses leave
The Australian Primary Health Care Nurses Association (APNA) said recent national data showed more than a quarter of all Primary Health Care (PHC) nurses in Australia reported planning to leave their jobs.
More than 80.4 per cent of primary healthcare nurses said they felt exhausted at work and 86.7 per cent said they felt stressed at work.
"Research says that if nurses leave the profession it's not because of the work — they love the work," Ms Kabaila said.
"Even for those who work in places where they're exposed to a lot of emotional and physical trauma, that's not why they leave.
"They leave because of the conditions or because of the hierarchy and the way they’ve been treated.
Ms Kabaila hopes her book will encourage more people to consider studying nursing and the importance of nurturing graduates as they enter the workforce.
"They are the future and they are such an integral part of our health system," she said.
Ms Kabaila said she appreciated all the sharing and mentoring from other nurses she had received in her journey.
"I would like to be a mentor however I can, for people who are coming into nursing or mental health or want to become a nurse practitioner because it's all about passing on that nurturing and care," she said.
