An exclusive interview

Destigmatizing cannabis education in nursing

“I started like every other nurse: I went to a nursing program, I graduated, and I went to med surg because that's what they told me to do and that's what you're supposed to do when you graduate. I spent about four or five years in med surg, telemetry, and I ended up getting my master's in nursing education. When I was doing that, I spent a lot of time in the float pool. I had three jobs, hopping around, it was great. After I got my master's degree, I worked in a transition practice program for new grad nurses in their first year. It was my job to love on them and make sure it wasn't traumatizing, so they wouldn't quit their jobs. Fast forward, I ended up in corporate hospital roles, so performance improvement, project management, etc., understanding hospital systems and how to implement on a large scale. Cannabis came haphazardly. I learned about it, I learned about the endocannabinoid system, I realized there was a discrepancy in what I knew about, and to me that was a green light to dig more into it and educate more people about it. That's where I am today.”

Ashley Wynn-Grimes, MS, RN, has worked as a nurse for over 14 years. She is an entrepreneur, and founded her education and coaching business, Cannabis Nursing Solutions, in 2020. She chairs the Cannabis Patient Advocacy Association in Maryland, and advocates for her patients regardless of the methods they choose to achieve wellness. She wrote a children’s book, “Asa’s Medicine,” about a child who takes cannabis as medicine, and recently published a second book, “Stigmatized.” She is an incredibly passionate and motivated person, with defined goals to bring knowledge of the endocannabinoid system into nurse’s patient care.

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