21/10/2026
I GET IT. BECAUSE I'VE BEEN ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE TABLE.
There was a time when I thought I had reached the pinnacle of my professional life.
After decades in healthcare, I had worked my way from an ER nurse to becoming a Nurse Practitioner, opening my own practice, and building a career I was incredibly proud of.
I was doing what I loved.
Until everything changed.
My health began unraveling. My body wasn't responding the way it once had. I was struggling with symptoms I couldn't seem to get answers for, and the life I had worked so hard to build began falling apart.
And suddenly, after spending decades on one side of the exam table, I found myself sitting on the other.
**I became the patient.**
I knew something wasn't right. I knew my body. But knowing something is wrong and finding someone who can help you understand WHY are two very different things.
I experienced what so many women experience.
The frustration of searching for answers.
The confusion of being told things look normal when you feel anything but normal.
The emotional toll of trying to keep functioning, keep working, keep showing up, while quietly wondering what is happening to you.
And the realization that women's health is far more complex than the brief conversations we often have about it.
I had spent my professional life in healthcare, and yet there I was.
**If this could happen to me, what was happening to the millions of women who didn't have my medical background?**
That question has never left me.
It changed the way I saw healthcare. It changed the way I listened. It changed the way I understood the connection between women's health, hormones, stress, and the demands we place on ourselves.
But more importantly, it changed my PURPOSE.
I realized my story wasn't just about getting my own health back.
It was about helping change a conversation that desperately needs to happen.
A conversation with WOMEN who have spent years believing that exhaustion, brain fog, mood changes, disrupted sleep, and feeling unlike themselves are simply things they have to accept.
A conversation with HEALTHCARE PROVIDERS about listening beyond the lab results, recognizing the complexities of women's health, and understanding how profoundly these changes can affect every aspect of a woman's life.
A conversation with EMPLOYERS and LEADERS about the experienced, talented women who may be silently struggling in the very years when their knowledge, leadership, and contributions are most valuable.
And a conversation within our COMMUNITIES about why women's health deserves greater understanding, education, attention, and support.
Because this is bigger than one woman.
It's bigger than one diagnosis.
And it's bigger than one healthcare practice.
**We need to change the way women are SEEN, HEARD, and SUPPORTED.**
I want women to understand their bodies and feel confident advocating for themselves.
I want healthcare providers to recognize that sometimes the most important information isn't found in a lab report. It's found in the story the woman sitting across from them is trying to tell.
I want organizations to recognize that women's health isn't separate from leadership, productivity, retention, or professional success.
And I want us to stop treating women's experiences as isolated problems when there are so many opportunities to connect the dots.
This is why I speak.
This is why I write.
This is why I teach.
And this is why I continue the work of transforming women's healthcare, one conversation at a time.
I also want to share something with every woman reading this:
**ALWAYS TRUST YOUR GUT.**
You know when something doesn't feel right.
Don't allow yourself to be silenced simply because the answers aren't immediately obvious.
Find someone you can trust. Someone willing to listen, ask questions, investigate, and work WITH you. And when you aren't being heard, don't be afraid to seek another opinion.
Your story matters.
Looking back, I never would have imagined that losing so much of what I had worked to build would lead me to a mission greater than anything I had envisioned for myself.
But sometimes purpose is born in the very place where we thought our story was ending.
I had to experience the other side of the table to fully understand the work I was meant to do.
**I get it. Because I was there.**
And now, I'm using that experience, my nearly 30 years in healthcare, and my voice to help change the conversation.
Not just for the women seeking answers today.
But for the women coming behind us.
For the providers caring for them.
And for a future where women's health is understood, prioritized, and never treated as an afterthought.
This is my mission.
This is my purpose.
And I'm just getting started.
**Strong. Beautiful. Fearless.** 💙
— Marcia Jones, NP
Nurse Practitioner | Women's Health & Workforce Strategist
Speaker | Author | Advocate for Changing the Conversation Around Women's Healthcare
🎥 In this short video, I share a little about finding my purpose after everything changed.
https://youtu.be/EQKWChSmwhU?si=W354StvgIC7VS75Q
