I had the pleasure of getting to interview Chloe Van Berkel, an absolute inspiration. With 27.9k followers on Instagram and 147.2k followers on TikTok, Chloe balances not only life as an influencer, but also as a senior nursing student at James Madison University. With this balance of social media and nursing, I had to sit down and ask her how she does it all. The result? An incredible look at how Chloe balances nursing, content creation, and being a senior in college all at once.
Tell me about yourself — who is Chloe?
So, I grew up in New Jersey, an hour outside of the city. I’ve always lived near the beach which I’ve loved. I live with my mom and my brother mainly, and they’re awesome, love them so much. In high school I didn’t really know what I wanted to do and then I was like, I think I could like the medical field. I like the diversity of nursing where you can do so many different things. I could switch my career tomorrow if I wanted to, like, a completely different field or outpatient or inpatient. So, I went into nursing school, decided on JMU based off a gut feeling and I’m glad I did because I love it. I made the best friends ever, love my roommates, even got a dog my sophomore year.
How did you decide on JMU as an out-of-state student?
I had never heard about JMU until one girl I knew from a town or two over had gone to JMU and said she really liked it. So, I was like, “Okay, let’s just throw it on the list of colleges to visit.” My mom took my brother and me on a big driving tour of schools all the way down to North Carolina. So, we did Duke, we did UNCW, we did like eleven colleges in three days. JMU, honestly, was barely even on my radar. And I visited and I was just like, I want to go here. I just got a really good gut feeling of all the schools I went to. And that’s why I ended up choosing JMU.
Was the nursing program on your radar?
It was. But, actually, the reason I almost didn’t go here was because it’s not direct admission and I didn’t like the fact that you didn’t know for two years if you were going to get in, and then you could be a semester behind. So, once I decided I really liked JMU, seeing that the nursing program wasn’t direct admission was actually the one reason I almost didn’t go here. And then I was just like, you know what? I really like this school. It’s great if I do get in; it is a great nursing program. So let me just make sure I get in. That’s pretty much what I just decided I was going to do. But I just got such a good feeling when I came here and compared to anywhere else I visited and I was like, I’m just going to make it work.
What drove you to go into nursing?
I’m someone who gets very bored of things very easily. And I felt that if I went into a career that wasn’t for the money or myself, but for helping others, that would make it worth it. Because if I’m feeling lazy and I don’t want to go to work, but I’m like, you know, there are people that need my help and this is my job and this is what I’m doing. I was like, that’s going to be the thing that makes me not get burnt out. And every other job I was looking at going into was just jobs that I would just be doing for myself because I was kind of interested, but there was nothing fully that jumped out at me. So, I was just like nursing — let me do it.
Is there anyone in your family that is in the profession?
Cousins, like distant cousins, but no one super close in the family. It was all teachers pretty much. And now we started to have a couple nurses, but it wasn’t family driven at all. Honestly, I don’t know. It was just — I think I could do this. It sounds like something I would like.
What during your nursing school career inspired you to go into Labor and Delivery for your capstone and look at pursuing that further?
I’ve always liked working with women and I’ve always loved babies. And we do a quick rotation on women’s health where we get two days in the hospital second semester of the program, and I really, really liked that a lot. I think that’s kind of just what drove me to do it. I mean, I loved it, but at first I didn’t. Honestly, I think you forget that birth isn’t just like, oh, happy, nice things. It can be really, really intense and a lot, and emotionally draining. Towards the end, once I got more comfortable and kind of felt like I could help a little bit more on the floor, I really liked it a lot.
Is that what you’re planning to go into with full-time nursing, or are you still kind of feeling it out?
It’s hard because they always recommend, you know, “Oh, you should start working first in the hospital and do your due diligence” and whatever. But I personally just see myself more in an outpatient environment. So looking at maybe like outpatient women’s clinics or outpatient neonatal clinics, stuff like that, I think I would really like. I mean, they’re so stressful in general, but outreach is a very different environment that I enjoy better.
What has been the biggest reward for you in nursing school?
Honestly just working with patients, having them tell you like, “Oh, you made my day,” or “This made me feel better.” It’s those little things of just being with the patients, doing patient care, and having them just thank you for what you’re doing. That’s really the thing that just makes me be like, “Okay, I like this.”
What was your biggest moment of growth, or realization, in nursing school?
I mean there was definitely times I was like, I don’t want to do this anymore. I had crash outs, I would cry, I was just, like, nursing. I love nursing as a career, but I hate nursing school. You’re balancing learning to maintain relationships with patients and knowing how to do that, and then all your classes on top of it. Nursing school is the strictest form of school I’ve ever been in in my life. The rules and regulations, everything that we wear, what we do, what we say, the nitpicking on exams — it’s unlike anything I’ve ever done. There were definitely times I was like, I don’t want to do this, I hate this. But honestly, I guess I just kept being like, you know what, I got to do this. People basically know that nursing school is not great. But if I was able to go into it and know once I was in that hospital environment, working with patients, I loved that and that’s why I was like, okay, this is still for me. It wasn’t a moment of: this isn’t for me. It was just like, nursing school’s a lot.
What motivated you to become a content creator?
Honestly, I was never planning on it. Obviously, everyone sees [influencing] and is like, “Oh, I want to be an influencer. That sounds fun.” But I wasn’t really planning it. I had my TikTok page for years, and I feel like it was so easy to go viral back then. I had a couple videos back then, but I was like seven or eight thousand followers which, for TikTok, is nothing. But then I made a video about the Sephora kids, and it blew up and got me over that ten thousand follower mark. Then I could join the Creator Rewards Program if I wanted, and I was like, “Well, let me just actually try a little bit to do this.” From there, it just kind of snowballed and kept growing, and my college content was doing well.
How do you balance full-time nursing and content creation?
I don’t even know, honestly, because I’m such a procrastinator and I always say that I like to think I’m somewhat lazy, but at the same time I get what I need to get done. So, for me, will I procrastinate? Yes. But if I have a due date or something needs to be done, a video has to be sent to a brand, or a brief has to be to a brand, or this has to be done. I do get it done. People overextend themselves into nursing, and I made sure to not do that, and I think that’s what gave me the time to also be able to focus on my content. But for me, how I balance that nursing was different than that because content creation was my first chance at a big girl job of due dates and deadlines. You can’t just ask for an extension. It’s unprofessional. That kind of motivated me, that this is my professional image. Being more go-with-the-flow and less Type A helps me because stuff does change; brands change their mind, stuff with nursing school is always changing, this clinical site could be closed this day. I think my Type B-ness actually helps me in that. I think if I were a little more Type A, I would have lost my mind. But being more able to go-with-the-flow helped me for sure.
Compassion fatigue in nursing and the healthcare profession is a very real thing. How do you work to mitigate that to your abilities?
For me, it was a big thing of, you know, if I have a full day off and I just worked four days in a row, really letting myself kind of veg out, giving myself those breaks that I really needed. Having my friends here and my family really, really help. I know a lot of people say like, “Oh, you can’t have a social life,” and I think your burnout would be insane if you didn’t. I think, like I said, some people literally put everything they have into nursing, which is great, but you can’t take care of yourself, and you can’t be the best nurse you could be if you’re not taking care of yourself. For me, it was really balancing myself, allowing myself to still see my friends, still see my family, lean on them and just really take the breaks in between when I felt like I needed it. Having a life outside of nursing really helped because when I clocked out, like my mind was off of that, I needed to just take the time for myself and be present with everyone else. And I’m sure having the content job helps with it too, because it’s something else I can do, it’s just another outlet to have. Most people who go into nursing school, like their entire life is nursing school, they have no other plan. I think, for me, having something else to fall back on helped because I wasn’t putting everything I had into nursing. Like, yes, I did everything I needed to, to be a good student and to get my work done, and I made sure I was giving my one hundred percent on those days I was at the hospital. But then I had other things to think about when I wasn’t at the hospital. I think when that is your whole life and you have no other vision for it, the burnout gets so much worse. Having balance helps me a lot.
With the rise of medical content creation like Dr. Mike and The Pitt, do you find yourself seeking that content on your days off or avoiding it?
I would honestly say not as much. I follow a few nursing creators, but I don’t like to make it my whole life because then all I’m looking at is nursing stuff all day, every day. I love a good “Come shop with me” video or almost more mindless content sometimes. I like reading sometimes on my days off just because I feel like I’m on my phone all day for work and always looking at a screen; my screen time is terrible. So, I try to mitigate that as best I can by reading and doing stuff like that. I just watched The Housemaid on the plane, and I do want to watch Reminders of Him because I read that book. I kind of want to watch Love Overboard on Hulu because I follow this content creator Jia that’s on the show, so I want to watch her on it.
What message do you think your content delivers?
I think it’s kind of, like, when I was going into nursing school, I wanted to find stuff where I saw what nursing school looks like, or I wanted advice on this, and it just wasn’t out there. Or I look to nurses now that I might want their career one day just to see what it’s like. So, I think just giving a realistic picture of figuring out college, I think is pretty much what I’m doing. It’s more like, “Hey, I’m figuring this out. You’re kind of going to figure it out with me,” and then sharing basically what I’ve learned throughout all of it. I’ve had so many girls reach out to me like, “How do you like it? How do you get in things like that?” So just being someone that can be like, “Hey, this is my experience. If you guys have questions, let me know.”
With college ending, how are you planning to shift your content?
We talked about it more post-grad stuff because I think, for a lot of people, post-grad’s become this big “what if” and our generation has had a really hard time getting jobs and navigating that and people have been freaking out. I guess my experience will be more now navigating post-grad with some college advice here and there because I’m fresh out of it and I just got through it. So my experience with that, but post-grad “day in my life” with where I end up in nursing, showing what my job is like as a nurse. I’ve looked possibly into doing part-time at like a dermatology office. So, if I did that, maybe sharing more derm-friendly skincare recs and stuff like that. Shifting into possibly sharing more product advice coming from a nurse. Definitely still more, you know, friendship advice, relationship advice, that stuff all stays the same.
Speaking of post-grad, what are your plans after nursing school?
I don’t have a job yet because I haven’t looked. And honestly, I think a lot of people say you need to start off in [medical-surgical nursing], which a lot of people don’t love, just kind of the nitty gritty, but it’s where you get the basis of nursing. People are like, “You need to start at a hospital,” and you need to do this and that. And I’m like, “Well, why do I have to do that?” Because that’s what you say I need to do. But I have a full-time career on the side. I would rather take a minute to see what post-grad looks like not having a nursing job right away because I’m blessed enough where I’ve been making income. And if I can, take a little break off for a little bit and, you know, be with my family and do that and then find a job I truly love in nursing instead of picking one out of necessity because I have to get one right now. That’s more what I want to do. I’ve just been reaching out to outpatient places, but I’m not giving up my nursing career. I went to school for four years, I am getting a nursing job, I’m just giving myself a pause. I’m going to take my NCLEX first, settle in a little bit, and then see where I think I fit in in that sense.
What advice do you have for aspiring nurses?
So many things. I feel like time management is really big. Nursing school shows you that if you want to get everything done and still care for yourself, you need to work on prioritizing. So, knowing for you, “What do I need to get done this week? What is important for me this week?” Don’t get in the mindset of like, “Oh, I can’t go, I have nursing,” it’s more looking at, “Okay, I have nursing, but where can I move stuff around that? I can still fit this in.” I think just prioritizing and knowing that, honestly, it might suck. It might not be the best, but you’ll get through it, and if nursing is truly what you want to do, it’s a means to an end. It’s worth it to get through nursing school, to get to the other side and do what you want.
Similarly, what advice do you have for aspiring content creators?
It is a mix of luck and hard work. I got lucky with having that one video do well and then kind of jumping my career from that. But I’ve put in so many hours into meetings and work and my managers now, so I work closely with them and constantly going into the city for meetings and doing this and basically just showing up where I need to in order to get my name and my face out there. For me, content creation kind of takes me where it takes me. I realize that it’s a job that at any point could not exist. I think that’s why I’m so set on: “I don’t need a nursing job right away because let me see where I can do with this.” Content creation, I don’t think, is forever, but I’ll have my nursing degree forever. So, for me, it’s more, “Take it as long as people are still listening,” and I can post my videos and do what I want. As long as I still feel like people are receptive, care, and are willing to see what I post and this and that, I’ll do it as long as I can. And if I feel like it’s not working anymore, whatever, then knowing that I have my nursing career and that’s honestly what I decided I wanted to do and go into.