Pat Carroll’s writing career began two years after her clinical career as a respiratory therapist began when she wrote a feature article to teach nurses how to care for patients requiring ventilator support. That article was featured on the cover of the journal Nursing, and a writing career was launched.
More recently, Pat has used her experience living with primary immune deficiency to write from the Voice of the Patient, winning the IG Living essay contest, writing the blog for CT Zebras’ Web site. She serves as a member of the state Medication Reconciliation and Polypharmacy Committee.
In between, she maintained a part-time clinical practice as a trauma nurse while teaching nurses, respiratory therapists, radiologic technology clinical educators, and aspiring health professions teachers. She loves to teach and has designed a number of college-level curricula including developing assessment methodologies. She published more than 100 professional journal articles that are indexed in PubMed, the database from the National Library of Medicine.
Pat earned a graduate degree in Educational Technology and Instructional Design, which informs her writing, producing and hosting award-winning instructional videos for nurses and respiratory therapists. She also wrote and hosted a special for PBS, broadcast nationwide as a companion to her first trade paperback. She won a FREDDIE award for the innovative use of Steadicam(R) to illustrate the clinician’s point of view when presenting case studies for analysis.
When she had time, she applied her journalism training to pitch some of the first medical stories to sporting publications. When Ervin (Magic) Johnson announced he was HIV positive, she convinced her editor at The Sporting News to include a reported piece from her on the public health implications of HIV infection. Pat knew the typical readers were difficult to reach with that information and saw the unique opportunity Johnson’s announcement presented. It turned out to be the only sports newspaper or magazine to address the disease, which earned a letter of commendation from the NBA commissioner.
Pat was also a columnist for Health and Money magazine and The New York Daily News.
She loves to write and is looking for freelance opportunities. She excels at compiling evidence-based guides to clinical practice by reviewing the relevant research. She taught a course in Health Literacy for more than five years and has expertise in translating complex medical information to prose easily understood by patients. On her Web site CT Zebras, she wants to post articles that help patients understand how the health system works, their role in the system as persons with potentially life-threatening illnesses (or parents of children facing that challenge), and how to make the system work when they need it most.
If this background and experience piques your interest or fits with your needs for a reliable, productive, interesting award-winning medical journalist and writer, please use the contact form to get in touch.