Working at the Infusion Nurses Society

and a few links to excellent writing!

As many of you know, this Substack has detailed some of my publishing or publishing-adjacent jobs. This post will focus on being an editorial production coordinator at the Infusion Nurses Society (INS), a position I held for just shy of three years, from April 2021 to February 2024. I particularly wanted to highlight literary writers who were featured in the membership magazine that I ran, INSider.

INSider came out every other month. When I received the position, I thought it was a print and digital magazine, but I soon learned that INS had switched it to digital only right before they hired me. The magazine contained a cover story, supplemental stories, educational articles, videos, in-house and sponsored ads, and more. Because my title was “coordinator,” I didn’t approve the content, unlike at Ruminate Magazine, where as editor I was the final decision-maker. However, my boss usually approved whatever I wanted to include (as long as I also included whatever she or others wanted me to include), which made me feel free and valued.

In addition to soliciting several INS member nurses to share their stories, I ended up reaching out to a few of my writing contacts. I’m going to screenshot their features here, then give you a link to the issue they are in, in case you are interested in reading on a fuller screen. All of them are excellent.

Rebecca Doverspike wrote about being a hospital chaplain during the pandemic. You can find this essay in the November/December 2021 issue: https://issuu.com/infusionnursessociety/docs/insider_nov_dec_2021_final

Alex Berge wrote about the infusion nurses who cared for his mom when she had cancer. You can find this essay in the January/February 2022 issue: https://issuu.com/infusionnursessociety/docs/insider_jan_feb_final

Craig Reinbold wrote about working in the ER during the pandemic. You can find this essay in the March/April 2022 issue: https://issuu.com/infusionnursessociety/docs/insider_mar_apr_2022_final

Kasia Nikhamina wrote about the nurses in the hospital who treated her mom who had COVID. You find this feature in the March/April 2022 issue: https://issuu.com/infusionnursessociety/docs/insider_mar_apr_2022_final

In addition to running the INSider magazine at INS, I edited emails, conference documents, website content, and basically whatever else anyone sent me. Sometimes I helped edit or coordinate the Journal of Infusion Nursing, a more scholarly publication, or the various book-length publications that INS produces. I didn’t mind the work, and because in 2022, I earned over $50,000 for the first time ever, I was able to bankroll travelling for some book promotion.

Last spring, around the time of my second annual review at INS, when I contacted the person who held my position before me, to ask him some compensation and title questions, I learned that he had earned at least $15,000 more than me five years ago! So although it was the most I’d ever earned, when I realized I was being underpaid—as well as like everyone else, I’ve been dealing with all the inflation since the pandemic—I decided to look elsewhere. Job searching takes time, but in February, I landed a position as a program assistant in the labor and communications departments at the Oregon Nurses Association, a local union. I will write about this position in another post—but it probably won’t surprise regular readers who know my focus on workers’ rights that I’ve landed at a union.

Although my title has shifted from editor to editorial production coordinator to program assistant over the past four years, every time I “go down” in title, I earn more. And every time I step further away from publishing, I earn more. If my goal was to work in publishing forever, then I’d deal with the stress of lower pay, or try to unionize where I was at instead of leave, but my goal is to continue to be a fiction writer with a day job, so I went somewhere that will sustain me while I pursue my writing. However, it’s also difficult for me to do work that doesn’t align with my values, at least in some minor way, so I’m glad I found a position at a union.

I hope everyone is well and has a wonderful summer!

Rachel