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A nurse educator and researcher for over 45 years, Dr. Jacqueline Fawcett is internationally recognized for her metatheoretical work. She has published more than 250 journal articles, book chapters, and several textbooks and is a leading contributor on Nursology.net, a website devoted to a wide range of nursology knowledge and theory-guided professional issues. My conversation with Dr. Fawcett, took place via zoom from her home in coastal Maine from where she continues to teach remotely, write, and publish her scholarly work.
PLE: Thank you for taking the time to speak with me about your life as a nurse educator. Can you tell our readers what drew you to this profession as well as some of your early experiences as a nurse?
JF: I have been very privileged in my life. I was the first person to go to college in my family. When I was about eight years old, I remember sitting at the dinner table and announcing I wanted to be a nurse when I grew up. My mother said, "Why don't you be a doctor [physician]?" After high school, I attended Boston University initially in the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences, with a focus on premed, but after my freshman year, I transferred to the School of Nursing at that university. Thinking this change might be out of adolescent rebellion, the director of the School of Nursing undergraduate program sent me to the university psychiatrist, who assured me I really did want to be a nurse and for the right reasons. My grandmother, who was a Gray Lady volunteer for the Red Cross in 1940s, influenced me.
PLE: How did you end up in Maine?
JF: My husband, John and I have been coming to Maine since 1972 to sail on the windjammers. So when John retired from teaching at the University of Connecticut School of Fine Arts in 1996, we decided to settle near the coast. We have a big house that is part art studio, museum, and gallery for my husband's artwork, and a study for my writing. Since the pandemic, I have been teaching and participating in meetings and conferences via Zoom.
PLE: You started teaching very early in your nursing career. After graduating in 1964, you worked in...