How Nursing Taught Me to Read Bodies and Porn Taught Me to Master Them

The naughty nurse is in…

By Sadie Summers

Published 1 month ago in Wow


My name is Sadie Summers, and I’m a 39-year-old former nurse who just so happens to have a penchant for nipple clamps rather than night shifts. Before I became a nurse, I was a porn star. I took a 15-year hiatus from the adult industry to pursue a career in nursing, but in 2023 I left my nursing job and got back into porn. During my medical career, I’ve done it all — I’ve wiped butts, assisted with codes and suctioned God-knows-what out of a tracheostomy. Now, I get paid to suction something much more palatable on camera, but with the same devotion and level of acute precision.


For some, going from being a nurse to being in porn might seem like a hard pivot. But nursing and porn have a lot more in common than latex gloves and glaring lights.


When I was in nursing school, I was taught every academic aspect of anatomy and physiology. I learned how to read labs, and how to take vital signs; I could read all the numbers on the machines and interpret them. But it wasn’t until I started working with patients that my clinical intuition really developed.


Over the years, I learned to read more than just the numbers on a screen; I could read people. The tiniest physical movement could conceal the biggest emotional pain. The slight twitch of a brow, the way someone held their breath, the silent scream behind the words, “I’m fine.” With a quick glance, I felt like I could get an X-ray into every patient’s real hopes, fears and joys.



And that didn’t just switch off because I swapped the scrubs for stilettos — I just adapted the same skills to a new environment. When you’re filming an adult scene with someone, you tune into them in the same way you’d tune into a patient. You learn to listen, to watch and to understand the human body. The cues are all there: noticing when a performer leans slightly away from someone’s touch but toward another’s, or when a coworker’s fake moans are about to turn into real tears, or how a man’s body tenses and moves when he’s close to cumming.


I like to think of the human body as music. There are multiple genres, but I can read all the notes.


For the most part, porn is performative, but in a way, so is bedside care. I’ve held someone’s hand before, all while trying not to panic as their clinical trajectory deteriorates. I’ve also pretended not to be sleep-deprived after a double shift, all for the sake of the patients’ family members. This isn’t to say that it’s all an act: I really did care about my patients, but there’s an art to the little performative dance that makes you a good nurse.


It’s a performance that teaches you how to be fully present. As a nurse, you have to be alert all the time. Everything happens quickly and, if you miss one cue, it could be fatal. In porn, it’s not so different. Sexual chemistry isn’t something innate — you nurture it. It demands attention and real presence. Real sexual connection doesn’t just happen during a scene — it’s actively built.


Some people believe that, because I get paid to turn people on, I must not really understand the sacredness of the human body. I don’t think that’s true. While I’ll admit that nursing had a huge role in teaching me that value (I have bathed dying men, and I’ve seen what bodies go through when the spirit is tired), porn did too.


When working with your naked form and another naked form, you start to untangle and explore all the sentiments and associations we have with our bodies — shame, ego, vulnerability, etc. — and that, in turn, has helped me to have great respect for the human body and its role in helping to shape our sense of self.



In nursing, boundaries are strict. You always ask for permission, you ensure the patient understands what’s happening, and you check in frequently and with intention. In porn, you do exactly the same thing. Before a scene, performers agree on establishing consent and on maintaining an open and honest line of communication throughout the duration of the shoot.


I don’t play nurse on set, but I still religiously check in with my coworkers; I don’t pathologize kinks, but I still take time to learn someone’s limits and boundaries. Much like in my nursing years, as a porn star, I create a space where people feel safe and where they can be vulnerable — whether they’re taking their clothes off for a sponge bath or for a spanking scene.


Sometimes, I miss the healing aspect of nursing. I miss the intimacy, and the way people can let you in when they’re at their lowest. But I also realize that I haven’t completely lost that. It’s in the way fans say a video helped them feel less shame, and in how they tell me a scene inspired them to try something new with their partner.


In the end, I never left this intimate healing space, it just adopted a new shape — one with better lighting, at that.

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