Nurse Who Writes
About
R.E. Hengsterman is a registered nurse, a Pushcart Prize-nominated, award-winning fiction and non-fiction writer, and an educator with over thirty years of healthcare experience. Coming from a place that combines the clinical and the imaginative, his writings have appeared in more than fifty publications, including Across The Margin, Maudlin House, Bluntly Magazine, Eunoia Review, Queen Mob’s Tea House, Barren Magazine, Riggwelter, Phenomenal Literature, Former Cactus, The Airgonaut and The Blotter Magazine.
As a writer that navigates the fine line between storytelling and science, he brings empathy to the facts and story to the data.
Award-winning The Shift Worker’s Paradox is a work of narrative nonfiction that mingles science, the life experiences of its author, and no-nonsense advice to investigate the less obvious expenses of life against the clock. Well-known for bridging the divide between healthcare and storytelling, his writing has helped to raise empathy and understanding in the clinical world. At Nurse Who Writes, he also works to merge science and narrative to clear up and calm the waters of healthcare, and enhance patient care, and also self-reflection for healthcare workers and writers alike.
He holds a master’s degree in nursing education (MSN), Innovation, Leadership, and Entrepreneurship (M.E.), and the arts (MA). Inspired by Denis Johnson, Mohsin Hamid, and Alice Walker, his fiction aims for the heart, and his nonfiction works pursue mental clarity. He lives in North Carolina, splitting his time between research, storytelling and working the night shift.
The Shift Worker's Paradox
“Working nights doesn’t just steal your sleep—it rewrites your biology.”
Your body is hijacked by a different rhythm, and can be affected in various negative ways, when working night shifts. Well-known strategies for sleep, nutrition, and physical exercise won't cut it anymore, and won't shield you from the psychological toll of burnout, anxiety, and fatigue.
To tackle these problems, tools and techniques in The Shift Worker’s Paradox are provided to help you correct them, and long-term protective protocols address heart health, hormone balance, and more. You can get ready for your next shift by implementing small, actionable hacks that prepare you to face the challenges of shift work.
This book skillfully combines medical understanding, frontline narratives, and compassionate advice to offer more than just a survival strategy; it's a blueprint for reclaiming your health, performance, and overall happiness.
If you've ever asked yourself, "How do I make this work without wearing myself out?", this book has your back.
The value of your health shouldn't be the cost of your career.
If you've ever dragged yourself to work exhausted, or fell apart due to sleepless nights and wonder how long you could keep going, this book will be your roadmap, showing you how to shield your mind, body and spirit, even when the schedule is stacked against you, and if you enjoy Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker you will also enjoy this book, which gives strategies that are specifically geared towards night workers, has a similar style to Breath by James Nestor or How to Change Your Mind by Michael Pollan, which are hard hitting, story-driven books that come with very practical advice.
Coming home from a night shift is never pleasant, but The Shift Worker’s Paradox takes into account your reality as a nurse, a healthcare worker, or someone who works at night and provides actionable insights.
The Paper Boy & The Winter War
Thirty-Eight Stories of Flash Fiction
“These stories move like smoke through a half-lit room—boys turned men too soon, families split by silence, love and violence braided tight.
The Paper Boy & The Winter War is a book of bruised hearts and broken promises, written in a voice that will follow you long after you set it down.”
Above him, one of my mother’s spider plants dangled. A runner stretched toward him, patient, green, slow as breath. Sometimes I imagined it stroking his shoulder. Sometimes I wanted it to wind around his throat. - Trapped Air
She rises, straddles his naked body, arms spread like wings. She lowers her mouth to his, releases the roach. It slides down his throat, its chitinous body lodging in his windpipe, wings unfurling. His breath rattles, then stops. Minutes later, the insect returns. She slips it inside herself, opening in pleasure, making a nest of her own. - The Nest
She found comfort in the routine: staff bending his limbs against contractures, laying bony prominences on pillows as if into coffins. Pinned by the unknown, she sipped coffee in the still moments, watched long-timers clutch Bibles, watched newcomers beg for miracles. Sobriety brought memories back jagged: the unhappiness of her pregnancy, the infant who screamed himself blue, the marriage gone gray. - The Uknown
What Early Readers Are Saying
The Power of Story Scholarship
Stories keep us alive. Nurses know this—every chart, every shift, every silence has a pulse. Through the Power of Story Scholarship™, we back nurses who want to write, who want to turn long nights into sentences that matter.
We proudly support Carolina Writing Workshops—not affiliated, just fans—because great craft lifts every storyteller.
The workshops happen in North Carolina, a state wired for words—a hotbed for writers, a place where mountains, coast, and red clay gave rise to voices that cut deep. Now it’s where nurses can claim their place at the table, shaping stories that heal as much as they reveal.
To fuel this vision, 5% of all sales from The Shift Worker’s Paradox are dedicated to funding this scholarship. Each purchase doesn’t just support a book—it invests in the next nurse-writer, in the healing power of story, and in the future of narrative medicine.
Each year, the Power of Story Scholarship™ sponsors one aspiring nurse-writer’s paid attendance at a Carolina Writing Workshop.
These are two special one-day “How to Get Published” writing workshops:
Friday, March 13, 2026, in Charlotte at the Charlotte Marriott SouthPark
Saturday, March 14, 2026, in Raleigh at The McKimmon Conference Center
Please submit your inquiry below to request additional details.
Freelance
I am a registered nurse, educator, and medical writer with more than three decades of experience in healthcare and nursing education. I specialize in developing evidence-based content that bridges clinical expertise with clear, accessible communication.
I am currently available for select freelance projects in:
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Continuing Education (CEU) Course Development
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Nursing & Healthcare Curriculum Design
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Medical Writing & Health Communication (articles, reports, patient education)
If your organization needs content that is accurate, engaging, and grounded in clinical practice, let’s connect.
