Jennifer Stone on What It's Like to Be a Nurse Helping Fight COVID-19 and Balancing Acting After "Wizards"

Every time Jennifer Stone drives into her job as a nurse at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center, she sees the big Walt Disney Studios water tower. It’s a collision of her two worlds. Because before she was treating patients, Jennifer starred as Harper Finkle on Wizards of Waverly Place – one of the few mortals that knew of the Russo family’s magic powers and a fashion icon years ahead of her time.

Jennifer, who still balances auditions and hospital shifts, made headlines earlier this April when she shared on Instagram that she was done with nursing school and volunteering, officially joining the many healthcare providers who are on the front lines helping those impacted by COVID-19. The story went viral, one of those nostalgia-meets-now moments where an aspect of our childhoods crossed into the current day relevancy of the coronavirus pandemic. Jennifer was shocked by the reception to her post.

“It had been a big milestone for me to get this particular job in the ER at Providence just because that was where I started my nursing journey as a volunteer,” Jennifer tells Teen Vogue during one of her breaks. “Plus, I'm so honored to be learning from and working with these nurses, and helping in any way that I can, especially during this time. That's why I posted about it. I never thought that it would garner this reaction. I kind of woke up the next day and thought my Instagram had broken.”

That nursing journey started at age 20, when Jennifer was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. At first, she didn’t have the most positive healthcare experience so she wanted to educate herself more about the body and how it works to better understand the disease. She then became passionate about doing her part to ensure that nobody else experienced the challenges she did. Soon after she enrolled in nursing school and began volunteering at Providence, where she fell in love with the community and working environment, a place that feels like home and where she can collaborate with like-minded people. That’s what solidified the hospital as where she wanted to work following graduation.

The RN residency program has her and other new nurses shadowing more experienced nurses to solidify their skills. At the moment, her average day still includes onboarding and orientation about the protocols of the hospital. She’ll do that six to eight hours a day, three or four times a week, and then will begin transitioning into 12-hour shifts on the floor.

Along with simply settling into her job at the hospital, she and the rest of the healthcare providers are also navigating the changes that have come with the coronavirus pandemic. She can’t disclose too much about the effects of the outbreak on her hospital due to privacy, but she says they’ve been relatively “OK” compared to some of the facilities that have been hit extremely hard, like those in New York City. But from new CPR guidelines to tents out front in the ER for COVID screenings, there’s been a number of deviations from what she learned in school.

“I can only imagine for nurses that have been on the floor for a decade how odd it is because protocols have just changed and shifted,” she says. “It's very different and it's an odd time to start working, but I'm grateful that I have the opportunity to actually be able to help.”

She believes that a lot of the anxiety and stress that she sees with patients comes from uncertainty or stems from false info. There’s still so much unknown about the virus, compressed with the fact that misinformation has spread like wildfire through social media, which creates fear-mongering. Jennifer points out that people should only be turning to reliable sources and listen to healthcare providers. She also says that from her experience, she’s seen that some people with issues unrelated to COVID are afraid to come into the ER for help.

“That's something we've seen too, that people aren't coming for things like strokes or heart attacks, or issues that they should be coming to the ER for because everyone is so terrified of getting this virus,” she says. “[At Providence] we're taking proper precautions to not only protect ourselves but our patients. If you're having those issues, you still need to come to the ER and get those treated. We're taking the safety precautions to protect you from the virus as much as we can.”

She’s quick to remind people of the importance of standing six feet away from others, properly washing your hands, and staying at home as much as you can. Additionally, that N95 masks really need to be saved for healthcare workers especially considering shortages, something she has used her platform to bring awareness about. If you do need to go out, she says to just be diligent about wearing cloth masks.

For Jennifer, her time on Wizards and acting skills have been pretty helpful when it comes to working as a healthcare provider. Having refined excellent short-term memory was useful to learn a whirlwind of medical terms, from medications to different diseases. Being able to put pieces of information together for patients reminds her of putting together the pieces of a character.

It’s taken a lot of organization and time management working as a nurse and continuing acting. She remembers one morning where she drove an hour to audition for a part as a cancer patient, embodying the emotions of a role like that, then driving to the hospital, taking a quick nap in the car, and putting on scrubs to head into work.

“I consider myself lucky that I've found two things in my life that I'm really passionate about. I can do my left and right brain,” she says. “I've had a few times where I've teared up and really gotten emotional hearing from people being like, ‘I wanted to go to school, but I also love something in the arts. I never thought that I could do both, but seeing that you can do it makes me feel like I can.’ Those are things that mean a lot to me because I have worked really hard to be able to balance both.”

She’s also thought a lot about the parallels between acting and nursing, when they can seem at different ends of the spectrum. With acting, the immediate impact of that art isn’t necessarily seen right away, other than in a laugh or smile. But with nursing, you’re helping save lives in the most literal sense.

“What's cool is the emotional aspect that I experience with acting, and being able to tap into emotional healing,” Jennifer says. “Nobody wants to go to the ER. It's not fun to sit in the waiting room, and then come and have people poke and prod you. You’re there on somebody's worst day, so to have the skills that I've acquired from acting, to be able to listen, empathize, and a lot of times say, ‘I don't know what you're going through, but I want to,’ is really a beautiful blessing.”

Since Wizards, Jennifer has appeared on a number of television series and starred in a couple of movies. She’s a huge Batman fan and has always wanted to play Batgirl (hey, she has the red hair down). Medical shows like The Resident and Grey’s Anatomy got her through nursing school, so she’d love to appear on one playing none other than a nurse. Especially because doctors tend to get a lot of the glory in that genre, so she’d be psyched to help highlight the work that nurse practitioners do, along with nerding out about the science behind-the-scenes.

The cast of Wizards of Waverly Place is still on a group chat together, where she says everybody’s been “so sweet and supportive.” Jennifer and a couple of the stars even reunited recently for an upcoming music video. She and former on-screen bestie Selena Gomez don’t talk often, but she acknowledges that she’s had a lot to juggle and adult friendships look different than when you were younger.

“We've definitely come back together and done one of those, ‘Whew, that was a lot, huh? You OK? Yeah. You all right? Yes.’ You know, those times where you can pick up where you left off, and check-in with each other,” she says about her relationship with Selena. “I think we both kind of had to do that, but I'm still always going to be there for her for sure.”

As for if she’s been recognized in the hospital by patients for her Disney Channel days? All the time.

“I will just say again — because I have to keep patient safety and security — but I've had people in very compromising positions turn back at me or look at me and go, ‘Hey, aren't you?’ and I'm like, ‘Yeah, but do you want to talk about this right now?’” she says. “It always happens at the most awkward time where you're sticking things in places, or doing things I won't speak of. It's always very strange when it happens. Sometimes I let them know and then sometimes I'm just like, ‘Oh yeah, I get that all the time.’ I try to listen to the moment and do what's most appropriate for the situation.”

Related:

-Billie Eilish Compared "Bad Guy" to the Wizards of Waverly Place Theme Song

-Jennifer Stone Says Selena Gomez Inspired Her to Be Open About Her Diabetes Diagnosis

Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue