Emily Pooladsanj has spent the past decade as a make-up artist in the businesses of creating “wounds” for 1980s style slasher films.
In a plot twist worthy of the silver screen, however, she hopes to soon be mending real injuries in the true-life role of a nurse. Emily credits the support and mentorship she has received at JPS Health Network for the rewarding change.
“It’s a lot of fun doing the make-up,” Pooladsanj said. “But, talking with the nurses at JPS and learning about what they do made me feel like I wanted something more out of my career. I wanted to do something that makes a difference in the lives of other people.”
The road from horror films has been a long and winding one.
“I was intrigued going back to 2016 when I started working here and realized how amazing these people are."
Emily got her start in movie make-up in high school, prepping the cast for school plays. Asked to do some special effects make-up, she began to study anatomy books in effort to make things look as realistic as possible. Pooladsanj got so good at what she did, she started teaching classes on movie make-up. Six years ago, Emily was asked to bring her skills to JPS Health Network where she worked movie magic on volunteer actors who portrayed patients to be examined by Trauma nurses in training.
“I’m a curious person and I like to ask a lot of questions,” Emily said. “So, the more I asked and the more I found out about being a nurse, the more interested I was in it. I didn’t think it was ever a realistic possibility. At first, it seemed impossible to get from here to there. But they told me they believed I could do this.”
Pooladsanj may not have immediately realized her potential. But RN Callie Crawford, Trauma Educator for the Department of Trauma Services at JPS, said she could see promise in Emily from the start. Crawford was one of several trauma nurses who answered the aspiring RN’s questions and encouraged her to take on the bold career change. Ultimately, Crawford wrote a letter of recommendation that helped Pooladsanj land a spot in nursing school.
“Her dedication to detail and her enthusiasm about helping others are traits important to nursing,” Crawford said about Pooladsanj. “She’s smart, hardworking, and compassionate. I can’t wait to see what the future holds for her.”
Emily said nursing school has been tough – yet rewarding. She plans to get her LVN degree in December and then start working on becoming an RN in June. She is open-minded about her specialty, but says she is attracted to the idea of working in a hospice environment when her education is complete.
There are definitely plenty of opportunities across the nursing field available now and in the foreseeable future. According to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are more open jobs in nursing than any other field. More than 200,000 positions remain unfilled, nationwide, in 2021.
Excited about her future and with a sense of purpose she’s never had before, Emily said it’s amazing how the nurses at JPS changed her life. She never even thought about being a nurse before she began to work with JPS, and she wouldn’t have had the courage to make the move without the support of Crawford and others.
“It was truly something that was never on my radar when I was in school,” Pooladsanj said. “I was intrigued going back to 2016 when I started working here and realized how amazing these people are. But I’m not sure it’s something that I thought was a realistic possibility back then. It was such an awesome opportunity to be at JPS and have the nurses there to help me in this journey. I’ll always be grateful to them.”
Interested in working at JPS Health Network? Visit jobs.jpshealthnet.org for more information.