An exclusive interview: The 'nurse on wheels’ delivering care from a wheelchair

I'm a 29-year-old registered nurse who also happens to be practicing with a disability that has me using a wheelchair. I was diagnosed with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome when I was around 16 years old. It's a collagen disorder that affects every bit of my body and causes a plethora of super fun symptoms, one of the staples being that all of my joints dislocate very easily, especially when I walk, so I've been using a wheelchair for the past three years. As far as my nursing history, I have 12 years of emergency medicine experience, six of those as a registered nurse, and then two years of case management and going on seven months postpartum.

…I remember being about 15 or 16 years old and being in the ER again, and my mom made a joke and she's like, ‘Ryann, you know, if you're going to be in and out of here so much, you might as well get paid to push the stretcher.’ This was totally a joke because at the time I wanted to be a professional ballerina or on Broadway. That was my goal. I was a dancer and had no interest in health or science, and my family was made up of artists and musicians, not medical people. So, she made this joke and I said, ‘alright, you're on.’ So I signed up for a class to train to be an emergency medical technician, an EMT. I took the class thinking that it would be like a one time thing just to tackle something that scared me and had caused a lot of trauma in my life. I ended up falling in love with it, and working all through high school and college.

Ryann Mason (she/her) has more than 14 years nursing experience in emergency medicine, case management and, most recently, postpartum care. Though her first dream was to be a dancer, she had to adjust after being diagnosed with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. Now, Mason is a nationally recognized disability advocate, registered nurse, and sexuality educator. She’s also an adaptive athlete, internationally published model, proud member of the LGBTQIA+ community, and the reigning Miss Wheelchair Virginia. Mason shares her story through her social media platform, @ChronicallyRy, where she posts about her experiences living with a chronic illness and degenerative disability. Her advocacy work and story as a disabled nurse has been featured in numerous other publications and podcasts.

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