Q&A with '88MS Alumna Ellen Meeropol

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Get to know Ellen Meeropol, who was inspired to become a nurse in the pre-Roe v. Wade days and has also blossomed into a fiction author influenced by her nursing career.

Ben Monat: Would you like to share anything about your background, where you grew up?

Ellen Meeropol: I grew up in and around Washington, D.C. As a girl, I was interested in acting and writing. My first essay, "I am a Square Dance Orphan," was published in a national square dance magazine when I was about 12. When I entered college in 1964, I thought I'd be a writer or an artist, but was drawn instead into anti-war and feminist activism. I dropped out of college and took a job in the mountains of eastern Kentucky as the traveling art and recreation teacher for Knott County. Later, I returned to college, completed a fine arts degree, and moved to Springfield, Mass. where I worked in reproductive health, helping women access abortions before Roe v. Wade.

BM: What inspired you to become a nurse?

Ellen Meeropol.

EM: I had never considered nursing as a career, but after Roe v. Wade in 1973, an abortion clinic opened in Springfield, and those of us who were reproductive health activists were hired to provide information and counseling services to women seeking care. I remember the exact moment I decided to become a nurse. During a routine termination procedure, the patient coded, the physician had no idea what to do, and the nurses ran the code and saved the woman. I recall looking at the nurses and thinking, "I want to be like them." With two young children, not much money, and a prior bachelor's degree, I enrolled at Springfield Technical Community College (STCC), planning to specialize in women's health. Instead, I fell in love with pediatrics. After graduation, I worked in migrant children's health, then pediatric ICU, and in 1981 took a job at Shriners Hospital. I loved working with children and families from all over the world. Much of my practice centered on children with spina bifida and I became active with other nurses involved in the care of these children, both regionally and nationally.

BM: What brought you to study at UMass?

EM: I loved my job at Shriners, but after a few years I wanted more responsibility, so I started looking into clinical nurse specialist programs. UMass Amherst offered access to a master's degree in child and adolescent health for nurses with a non-nursing bachelors and that sounded perfect and do-able with my job. I wrote my thesis on sexuality in adolescents with physical disabilities. I enjoyed the wider practice, but was frustrated with not having prescription authority, so went back to UMass again and earned a pediatric nurse practitioner certificate in 1996. I loved my expanded practice and appreciated how flexible the UMass Amherst nursing program had been in allowing me to focus my education to specialize in treating children with physical impairments. My love of writing was also encouraged, and in 1988 I was honored with the Ruth A. Smith Writing Prize for an essay on transdisciplinary early intervention.

"I loved my expanded practice and appreciated how flexible the UMass Amherst nursing program had been in allowing me to focus my education to specialize in treating children with physical impairments... I'm grateful to UMass for the expanded practice and for the nursing research and professional writing skills that allowed me to participate in [nursing research of latex allergies in children with spina bifida]."

— Ellen Meeropol, author, retired nurse, and UMass Amherst alumna

BM: How did UMass Amherst Nursing help you achieve your personal and professional goals?

EM: The research and professional skills I learned at UMass, in conjunction with my interest in the care of medically-complex pediatric patients, came together in April 1989, when I read a short article in the New England Journal of Medicine about severe allergic reactions to latex rubber in children with spina bifida. With other New England-based nurses, I created a small research project to study the incidence of latex allergies in our patient populations. The NEJM published our findings in 1990. In addition to pursuing further research, we published over a dozen articles in medical and nursing journals and books, including a simple tool to screen children for latex allergy and a list of latex-containing items and alternatives updated and published for the National Spina Bifida Association. As nurse-researchers and advocates, we were invited to conferences, medical symposia, and many family meetings to spread the word about the dangers of latex to this population. Looking back, it was an amazing experience to be at the forefront of the discovery of new knowledge with significant patient impact. I'm grateful to UMass for the expanded practice and for the nursing research and professional writing skills that allowed me to participate in this effort.

BM: Please share about where your career has taken you, and what are a few things you are currently working on?

House Arrest book cover

EM: In 2005, after almost 25 years at Shriners Hospital, I took an early retirement to write full-time. I'd been writing fiction for five years, was enrolled in a low-residency MFA program, and was ready for a change. Since leaving my nurse practitioner practice, I've published five novels and guest-edited an anthology. No surprise, though, that health-related concerns are often featured in my novels and stories. In fact, my first novel, House Arrest, focuses on an ethical dilemma centered on a girl named Zoe with spina bifida and latex allergy.

"Being a writer, like being a nurse, gives me the opportunity, the privilege, of being deeply curious about other people, with as much respect and and skill and love as I can muster."

— Ellen Meeropol, author, retired nurse, and UMass Amherst alumna

BM: What do you enjoy doing for fun?
EM: For fun, I read, write, paint with watercolors, make beads, play Settlers of Catan, and try any kind of craft that looks interesting. I also walk every day and enjoy spending time in the woods.

BM: What are your plans for the future? 

EM: I've just signed the contract for one more book, a novel-in-stories to be published in spring 2026. Many of the characters from my previous novels return, including Zoe, with more to say about the world. This book is dystopic and speculative, somewhat grim but with a beacon of hope.

"To students considering a career in nursing, I'd encourage them to explore to explore the wide range of opportunities in the profession, and to find ways to include your own passions in the work."

— Ellen Meeropol, author, retired nurse, and UMass Amherst alumna

BM: What is one piece of advice you would offer to prospective and/or current UMass Amherst Nursing students?

EM: In the Q&A period after a reading/author talk at a library in Connecticut, a woman asked me what influence my nursing career had on my writing. I didn’t have a good answer for her, said something about about my first novel being about medical and nursing ethics. I knew there was more, but couldn’t put my finger on it. Later, I realized that being a nurse, for me, was an odd mixture of empathy and being nosy. In nursing school I was taught that one aspect of my job was to help my patients accomplish the things they wanted done but couldn’t do alone, respecting their individual, cultural and spiritual beliefs. I was taught to empathize, to understand what another person is experiencing from within her frame of reference, to see the world through her eyes. That’s eerily like my approach to characters; it’s my job to discover who these “beings” are who wander into my brain and take up residence, and helping them develop personalities that serve themselves and the story. And then there’s the other part, being nosy. I like to watch other people and understand what they’re feeling. If they won’t share, I imagine it. If I were asked that question now, I'd answer that being a writer, like being a nurse, gives me the opportunity, the privilege, of being deeply curious about other people, with as much respect and and skill and love as I can muster.

To students considering a career in nursing, I'd encourage them to explore to explore the wide range of opportunities in the profession, and to find ways to include your own passions in the work.

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