Jenny White: Retired Nurse Brings Real World Experience into Gripping Medical Thrillers
Jenny White is a retired Registered Nurse living in Southwestern Ontario. She spent over 30 years working in various settings including hospitals: ICU’s, trauma units, surgical floors, as well as Public Health and Long-Term Care homes (nursing homes).
She has vast experience in these settings working as staff, and finishing her career as a Director of Care, managing large nursing departments as well as a Director of Nursing services for a for profit organization overseeing 7 of their long-term care homes.
She holds a Bachelor of Science Degree and a Masters Degree in Healthcare Administration.
Having retired, she discovered that she had a brain tumor wrapped around her carotid artery in her brain, which was life threatening and required specialized surgery. After her extensive surgery, she was comatose for days, and when she awoke, she found herself tied to the bed as she had become a disoriented patient, attempting to remove all of the medical tools keeping her alive. Her memories were gone, she did not recognize her husband at the bedside, and she had to relearn how to walk and talk.
Over the next year, Jenny had to reinvent herself. Her old hobbies and interests were gone, and she felt vulnerable and lost. That was the turning point. She decided she was interested in writing her story.
As she learned the craft of writing by taking online courses during her rehabilitation, a spark was ignited and she began to write.
Her returning memories are slow, but are impacted by writing, slowly remerging from the past. Her experience is vast and she has many stories to tell. She now writes Medical Thrillers.
In her debut novel, “The Triggering Scent” (book 1 of a series), Jenny took her experience, and returning memories and created a character of a nurse, working in an ICU.
The story is: A nurse returning to work, the ICU, realizes that she now struggles with her memory and questions her skills. She realizes that the meth addicted neurosurgeon who ruined her life is now working in her facility, and she must stop him from hurting others even if it means risking her own license to do so.
The Triggering Scent is now published and available on over 40 platforms.
Book 2 is at the publishers and is named “Terror at the Manor” and takes the protagonist Abbey Roberts into another setting: the nursing home (called Long term care homes in Ontario). In this story, she weaves the challenges and horrors that occur within these homes based on true events fictionalized for storytelling.
Book 3 is currently being written and is titled: “The silent donation.” (working title). It will feature the currently unregulated industry of selling body parts within North America, and will feature Abbey Roberts learning of and assisting in the exposure of the industry.
As a nurse, Jenny wishes to bring to light issues facing healthcare today: burnout of staff, lack of recognition, long hours, exhaustion, unrealistic working conditions, short staffing, extensive regulations, violence in the workplace, and more. She has woven those issues throughout the books to highlight the profession as one in crisis and to inspire decision makers to acknowledge and discuss new ways to support those who give their all.
Jenny lives with her husband, and small dog Molson, on the northern shores of lake Erie in Ontario Canada. Jenny has 2 children, 3 step children, and 2 grandchildren. She loves to travel, hike, kayak, camp, and dream! She is a warrior and survivor of cancer, abuse, and brain tumor surgery.
You spent your life helping others. What is the reality of being a nurse?
The reality of nursing is that it is a tough and challenging job. Nurses are highly trained, and with experience, highly intuitive and resourceful. Nurses are the eyes, ears and advocates for patients and their families. They save lives. They notice the shift in conditions. They are professionals, and should always be treated as such.
The reality many don’t see or understand is that being a nurse takes a toll on one’s emotions. You need to be able to empathize, but set boundaries and this can be difficult. You become somewhat attached to patients, as you truly care for their success and recovery. It’s exhausting, and you may lose a part of yourself if not careful with each death. You take your successes and failures home with you daily.
Nurses are often exhausted constantly as the demands that are placed on them often require long shifts, overtime, working short staffed and more. Violence in the workplace is common, with nurses being assaulted both verbally and physically with little help from employers. All of these things take a toll, and the result is that nurses are leaving the profession in droves.
Tell us about a pivotal moment in your life.
One day, during my retirement, I didn’t feel well. I thought I might be having a stroke, and my nurse brain told me to go and get checked. At the hospital, I was quickly assessed, scanned both by CT and MRI, and discovered that I had a brain tumor that was going to kill me sooner than later. That stopped me in my tracks. I knew as a nurse I was a walking time bomb, and would have to face a difficult and dangerous surgery. I was put on an emergency call list for the first available OR.
As I waited the phone was my lifeline. But what they don’t tell you is that every time the phone rings, your heart beats faster, your stress level increases and you answer each call as if it is your last one. The stress of waiting for surgery was overwhelming. I spend the time with family discussing my wishes, making funeral arrangements, and writing my obituary.
You didn’t recognize your husband. Take us through your experience.
When I woke up from a coma, I noticed a man standing at the end of my bed in the ICU. He was dressed in street clothes, and my “nurse brain” told me that if he was in the ICU, he should be someone I knew. I didn’t. It turned out to be my husband of 20 years.
I knew from the look on his face that he was devastated. He explained who he was as he kissed my cheek. I don’t remember feeling sad, rather just numb at the time. Now, 2.5 years later my memories still elude me. He has 30+ years of memories, and I have few. We have reinvented our marriage by starting over….dating. Learning. Talking. We are a married couple, living in the same house, but more like roommates as we navigate the new normal.
He was an angel at my side during my recovery. He realized I had changed, but stood by me. He nursed me, helped me walk, and relearn how to talk. It has been very challenging, and I expect he has had more to grieve than I. He could have left. But he stayed, and I will be forever grateful for his kindness and commitment.
Your rehabilitation sparked your creativity. Why do you think this happened?
I did experience brain damage and injury during the surgery. The tumor to be removed was in a bad location, at the base of my brain. This meant that access was difficult and my brain tissue had to be manipulated as they went after the tumor. Whenever brain tissue is manipulated, it is delicate and will be damaged. There is also a saying in neurology: Air to the brain, you’re never the same.
I woke with an altered personality, loss of memories, changes in likes and dislikes, and a change in interests. During my speech therapy, my therapist suggested I try writing words down. That was successful, and once I realized I now had a way to communicate, it also triggered my brain to start to rewire itself. As I wrote more, I was excited-I could do something positive, and use writing as a way to express myself, as well as help to communicate. This gave me self esteem and a will to grow.
Your debut novel, “The Triggering Scent” is captivating the attention of so many. Tell us about it.
When I took writing courses to learn the structure and craft of writing, the first lesson they taught was to write about something you know. I knew medicine through the lens of a nurse, and I knew the experience of being a brain tumor patient. So, I combined the two and crafted a medical thriller.
The character I created was Abbey Roberts RN, and she in a sense became me. I gave her a brain tumor, although her outcome was worse than mine, and put her back working in an ICU—a place I had thoroughly enjoyed working in. I was able to express my feelings and emotions through the character which helped me heal.
In the novel, Abbey returns to work, only to discover that the meth-addicted neurosurgeon who botched her surgery in one city, was now working in her hospital, and she must stop him from hurting others even if it means risking her own career.
My outcomes were obviously better than Abbey’s but it does create an interesting thriller with lots of twists and turns.
Book 2 of the series has Abbey Roberts work in a long term care setting. Here she encounters challenges that as Director of Nursing she must confront and fix. I worked as a Director of Nursing in long term care, and took what I saw, learned about, and had to deal with and created a medical thriller that questions the safety of residents in these homes. This book is soon to be released in the Fall of 2026.
Book 3 of the series is currently being written. It will be called “The Last Consent” and deals with body donation issues after death. Abbey will be offered an opportunity to create a philosophy of palliative care that has yet to be utilized: A high end luxury resort for the dying. She soon discovers that the signed consents are not being honored in the spirit in which they were intended. It focuses on ethical outcomes, and ethical issues in body donation.
Do you believe everything happens for a reason?
Yes, I do. I have always been a spiritual person. I personally believe that I am a spirit having a human experience—which means the universe (God) is in charge. Someone/something greater than humans chose to keep me alive and give me a second life. As a nurse I served others. Now, as an author, speaker, and soon to be TV host, I will continue to serve by entertaining, sharing my story of reinvention to provide hope, and continue to grow and give back to my community
What would people be surprised to know about?
I am choosing to write medical thrillers for two reasons: one to entertain, but secondly to raise issues and discussions about the challenges in healthcare worldwide.
I want people as they read these books to ask questions: could this happen? What if it happened to me? What can we do to protect people? How can we improve the systems in place? How can we do better?
Change will only occur when people become aware of issues, and challenge the status quo. No system is perfect. Systems and processes can always be improved. It’s time to take action. My goal is to raise social awareness and promote positive change.
You also have a children’s books series: The Molson and Jenny Adventure Series. What inspired the main characters? What makes this series so special?
When I was recovering, I was lying in bed dreaming about being a kid again….5 or 6 years old. My dog Molson was curled up beside me and never left my side. I began to dream. I realized that I could create stories in my head. And once I realized I could write, I could record them. That became the series. I thought about a second childhood: visiting the zoo, the aquarium, the police station, the fire station and more.
It’s special to me because it was the beginning of a second act—that as a writer. The children’s stories were simple, short and fun and they boosted my self esteem when I was struggling to figure out who I was now going to be.
What is next?
The Abbey Roberts series will continue to be written highlighting new challenges for discussion.
I have been offered an opportunity to host a TV show in partnership with the McCord List in Hollywood. It will be called “Inside the Story: Confidential” and will focus on other authors, actors etc and the characters within the stories.
