How I Became Nurse Jones ESQ.

Today I’m going to speak with you just briefly about how I became dawn Grace Jones RN JD or Dawn Grace-Jones Esquire RN. I became this person after experiencing wonderful things. So let me tell you about this journey.

I started off knowing always that I wanted to be a nurse. I was a very sickly child and I wanted to help children, or so I thought. When I finished high school I did go to nursing school. I attended Florida A&M University School of Nursing. It was an awesome program.

While in nursing school we had to do a clinical and in doing the clinical rotations I learned all the different areas but with hands-on learning. When I got to that part I wanted to really focus on pediatrics. You have to learn all the parts but that was my thing.

So when I got into the pediatric area, I found that many children were being abused and it’s in your face, but your job is to help care for the child. Help in getting this child better on the health continuum from illness to wellness and not focus on all these other things that you become aware of.

Well that was very difficult for me. So I realized focusing on Pediatrics as my area for life was not going to work for me because of that. And there are other things. I mean children are not always abused. They’re just sick children. I understand that, but that part of it was difficult for me and I’m being transparent.

I loved nursing school though. You know you say “I can’t stand blood”, “I can’t stand when this happens”, “I won’t be able to accept that” and you get in nursing school and you find out you can. You can! At first it’s a shocker and for a while it may be but you’ll get through it.

My class was the first to take the National Council licensure examination and that’s the NCLEX. I was in the first class to take that examination, and it was a very scary time for us because we didn’t know what to expect. This was a new exam. The state board was formatted different from any state board that had been in place before.

We didn’t know what to think, but we knew we had to work hard and we were well prepared. One of my instructors asked me how I felt about it. I said, “well, I don’t have a choice. I have to pass.”

She said to me, “because of the way you answered I know you will and I have confidence that you will. I know you’re going to do well.”

My class was one that everybody planned to go beyond our bachelor’s degrees. At that time I was going to get my master’s as a nurse practitioner and then go on. Back then it was a PhD you would get and I planned to do that.

I finished nursing school. I was on the National Dean’s List and I graduated with honors. It was a lot of fun and I felt really good about myself. When I finished school, it became the time for me to start to think about the next step. And it was right away, by the way.

As I considered the next step somebody said you should go to law school. I had never thought about law school, never dreamed of law school, never wanted law school, nothing. That was not my path, I thought, but I was talked into it because I knew I wanted to teach. Someone said, “Dawn, you could teach if you’re an attorney. You can do a lot of things and teach.”

I said okay and I took the LSATs, the examination to gain admittance to law school. I did great on it and I got into the University of Miami unexpectedly. I say that because I only applied to the University of Miami.

I got into that school but did not know better. Everybody applied to five schools, three schools, seven schools. I applied at UM and got into UM. I didn’t know any better, honestly, I’m being transparent.

Law school was pretty difficult for me. I worked almost full time and I was a full-time student. After the first year you can work in this program. So I worked because I needed to. I worked in the emergency room which was a great fit for me, but I had to focus on that part of my life. I got through law school and another big examination.

First thing I did out of law school was work as a medical legal consultant. In doing so I helped other attorneys with their medical or injury type cases. I helped both sides, defense and plaintiffs. Then I stumbled into immigration law and ended up this known immigration litigator and did quite well in the area.

That was until someone told me that somebody wanted to talk to me from the City Attorney’s office. I found out that they needed someone to come and work workers compensation cases. They needed someone who understood medical cases. So I went and I took the job.

I was an assistant city attorney for a couple of years, great job, litigating workers compensation cases for the government. I left there and went back into private practice as a personal injury attorney, immigration attorney, title work and even doing real estate contracts.

I became an arbitrator for the Better Business Bureau, certified by the Better Business Bureau, handling lemon law cases. From there I started to work as a special magistrate, and it has been great, but I also kept my head in nursing.

By that I mean I worked as an assistant manager of ICU. I worked home health high tech. I also worked as a risk manager, more recently risk legal, for a major healthcare company. In doing so I was asked to put a lecture together on documentation.

Well I focus on the legal aspects, being an attorney, and not getting sued. How can I help my colleagues not get sued? I still do that lecture today and I wrote an e-book that goes with that. I talk to pharmacists, I talk to medical students, I talk to doctors. I talk to everybody, because if I can help you not get sued that’s my goal.

And I love it! That’s what I do now and I still work as a special magistrate. So that’s how I became me. I lecture on different things and I love doing it mixing my medical and legal backgrounds.

If you’re interested or know someone who may be interested in pursuing a career bridging health and law like I do download my 5 Must Know Tips for Healthcare Students Considering Law School below and be sure to check out my blog posts on this topic right here!