Marcus L. Kearns
In a recent TikTok, Clyde Edwards-Helaire of the Kansas City Chiefs revealed he’s currently going to school for nursing. He points out that he’s the smartest choice to babysit his teammate’s kids because he’s prepared to handle any medical emergencies.
This announcement came just a few weeks before the Kansas City Chiefs made it to the 2024 Superbowl to play against the San Francisco 49ers.
This article will explain why Clyde Edwards-Helaire chose to pursue nursing, the skills from football that will help him as a nurse, and showcase other pro-athletes who have followed a similar career path.
Clyde Edwards-Helaire is the running back for the Kansas City Chiefs. He is 24 and has been with the team since 2020. Helaire studied Kinesiology at Louisiana State University before being drafted into the NFL.
In one interview, Helaire explains that he was inspired to go into nursing by his mother, who is a nurse. He watched his mother juggle putting his siblings through school, working full-time, and then spending the nights studying to be a nurse because it was her calling.
He smiled, recalling how’d he would look through her textbooks and how it all drew him in.
He also discussed his sister, who has muscular dystrophy, and how she transitioned to home care thanks to their mother’s skills as a nurse.
While some may consider professional football and nursing to be entirely different worlds, there are many overlapping skills that Helaire can bring from his time at the Kansas City Chiefs to healthcare.
Professional athletes are under an extreme amount of pressure due to the competitiveness of their industry and the direct result public performance has on job security. The average career for NFL players is only three years, which can lead to players being overwhelmed by the pressure.
The stress of nursing is well-known, as burnout continues to drive qualified nurses from bedside care. Nurses know that the quality of care can be the difference between life and death for their patients. Business News Daily ranked ER nurse as the 10th most stressful job in 2024.
On top of the mental resilience nurses must have, there is also an increasing threat of violence for nurses who handle erratic and stressed patients who may lash out. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found that nurses experienced 73% of all nonfatal injuries from workplace violence.
Football players are also at an increased risk of injury due to their careers. Repeated concussions and other force-impact injuries raise the chance of developing a degenerative brain disease known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
When watching football, it’s easy to see how every team member plays a vital role in winning the game. Helaire, the running back, must be aware of both teams and their positioning to receive the ball from the quarterback and run to the endzone without being stopped.
Nurses are an essential part of healthcare teams, acting as a direct liaison between physicians and patients. Nurses are often directly responsible for administering care directly to their patients as well as advocating for them. Reporting on a patient’s progress is also the job of the nurse, who keeps the entire team informed through careful charting.
While Helaire has not openly discussed his plans after becoming a licensed RN, he has the opportunity to work as a sports medicine nurse at the intersection of health and sports sciences. These nurses can work as part of surgical teams in hospitals or as part of sports teams.
Sports Medicine Nurses are typically RNs who specialize in caring for athletes, preventing and treating injuries. They focus on musculoskeletal injuries such as muscle strains, torn ligaments, dislocations, joint strains, and bone fractures.
Nurses in sports medicine make an average of $34 an hour in the United States, which is slightly below the average RN who earns $40 an hour. However, nurses with preexisting experience, such as former athletes, will likely earn well above the average, which is about $60 an hour for both sports medicine nurses and all RNs.
Helaire is not the first NFL athlete to turn to nursing. Here are several other football players who pursued a career as a nurse.
Clyde Edwards-Helaire has brought public attention to nursing, dedicating himself to his studies while preparing for the Super Bowl on February 11, 2024. Nursing school is a challenging commitment, that balances classes and clinical training. As nursing programs become more flexible more athletes like Clyde Edwards-Helaire will be inspired to pursue dreams of a nursing career.
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