Once a Nurse, Always a Nurse

The CVOID-19 pandemic has left physical, psychological and moral wounds for nurses who have sacrificed so much to provide care to patients and their families. Some healthcare workers describe symptoms similar to PTSD: having panic attacks, difficulty sleeping, unable to eat or eating too much, exhaustion, tearful, and reliving the tragedies they have witnessed. There is a name for this, which also brings the good news that it can be relieved. My guest in this important episode is Dr. Cynda Hylton Rushton, the Anne and George L. Bunting Professor of Clinical Ethics at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics and the School of Nursing, and co-chairs the Johns Hopkins Hospital’s Ethics Committee and Consultation Service. Together, we will explore the sources of moral suffering experienced by nurses and offer a roadmap for restoring integrity by cultivating moral resilience. Dr. Rushton is the perfect person to talk with us about the symptoms of this engulfing experience and how to find our way out of the cloud.

I hear from nurses/HC workers daily. I hear the incredible things you do to help patients & families under your care in COVID & Non-COVID units; there are stories of love for co-workers, exhaustion, rage; efforts to lighten the load of each other & mind-numbing, heart-aching memories. I hear your doubts about yourself & your abilities under these unrelenting experiences. Who wouldn’t? Do you just want to rest your mind & hearts—to feel LOVE and see LIGHT ahead of you? It has been my dream for the past 9 months to bring that to you in some concrete way. In January I discovered my Guests Melissa Cortez & Dr. Natalee Trevino of CortexEnergySystems.org and realized their dream, is my dream, is your dream. My Once a Nurse Marketing Director, Tanya Abreu & I joined with these women to create the Love and Light for Nurses Website. Join us to hear how we can help YOU reach the support & empowerment that will re-energize you to stay in the game, Monday, March 15 1 PM ET/12 N CT/10 AM PT.

We have the honor of welcoming Dr. Ernest Grant, President of ANA and Dr. Tim Raderstorf, the Chief Innovation Officer at The Ohio State University College of Nursing to Once a Nurse. The two collaborated on the Nurses Everywhere Website, which is exactly what it says: a thank you and dedication to the work, love, commitment, knowledge and experience of the Nurses of America. We have a LOT to talk about: COVID, Vaccines, Needs of Nurses and commitment of nursing organizations to put nurses FRONT and CENTER! Nurses have spent enough time quietly at the bedside doing work the public cannot even imagine! Nurses are also researchers, epidemiology, integrative medicine, education AND innovation specialists. It is time for nurses to be recognized for the unique role we bring to the practice of Health Care of our citizens. Please join us for an exhilarating Episode of Once A Nurse!

There is a new wave of healthcare coming to the forefront of medicine and my 3 guests are among the first to ride that wave. It is called Integrative Medicine and is being practiced by Advanced Practice nurses across the country. Kim Evans, APRN, RN is the founder of Integrative Medicine in Louisville, KY, Pam McDonald, IMNP, is founder of Penscott Corporation, and Mary Ann Osborne, DNP, FNP is the Owner of the Institute for Integral Health. These three dynamic women are here to discuss what happens to the health of a community when nurses are integrating the healthcare. We will also talk about the revolution in nutrition care through the use of the APO E Gene to determine an individual's correct diet. The combination of education, teaching, integrative practice, international speaking years of these women is astounding! Join us!

Post COVID, Nurses must recreate ourselves! We have more, or less, accepted the roles others and Media have portrayed us as. We are FAR more than that! My guest, Ann Scanlon McGinity is a decades-long model of Nursing Leadership, who continues to vibrantly move the role of nurses forward. In this Episode, we will share a DYNAMIC conversation on necessary changes nurses must make for our future reinvention. Let us look at Nurses’ current image. What image would TRULY do justice to who and what nurses are? How will we craft a new, more robust and comprehensive professional identity image? How will we, as Nurses, brand that NEW image, which will require the work of leadership in establishing a culture that supports this image, faculty and clinicians who can live this new image and how we communicate this to the public. DO NOT MISS this Episode if YOU are determined to help transform Nursing and Healthcare!

One of the MOST difficult and most HEALING things a human being can do is to speak about their own “secrets.” Have we ALL grown up believing that we are the only ones who have them and that revealing these truths will destroy us? Just about everyone I know would answer “Yes” to that question. The irony is that it is those who do tell the truth and then seek help, healing and a “maskless” life going forward, are truly the ones released from those demon secrets. My Guest, Kim LaMontagne, has not only stood up with the courage to do this, while she was a successful corporate executive dealing with alcoholism, but she has dedicated her life to helping thousands of others do the same. We will talk about the POWER such conversations bring to the healthy workplace and to the individuals who take their own power back by speaking up.

Much has been written over the past 30 years about Nurses Eating their Young. It has been debated up, down and sideways. My guest, Kathleen Bartholomew, MN, RN decided to do something to stop it. She and two colleagues, Dr. Martha Griffin and Arna Robins, wrote a book called, “The Dauntless Nurse: Communication Confidence Builder.” The book is a NO nonsense look at the reality of sometimes severe Nurse-to-Nurse Hostility. It Exists! It is Devastating to nurses and healthy care of patients! It has to GO! Here is How to do it! We will talk frankly about why nurses can and MUST change this behavior, but also how healthy nurses can heal our ailing America!

What is the cost to Healthcare for not listening to nurses in 2020-21? If Healthcare organizations in the World think they have had problems with turnover in the past, they have not seen ANYTHING yet. My Guest, Melissa Cortez, BSN is a very experienced nurse in high-risk areas. After traveling in the USA as a COVID ICU nurse and seeing the trauma, exhaustion and demoralization of nurses, she decided to share her practice of evidence-based Mindfulness to stimulate personal energy in the middle of even the toughest shifts. If you think that sounds boring, THINK again! Melissa launched her Cortex Energy System and Network in January 2021. Join us for a high energy discussion on COVID Nurse Energy Boost! We will also be talking about Transforming Healthcare! Are you IN?

Our Healthcare system is broken. In fact, we do not have healthcare in this country—we have disease care. We wait until you get sick and then try to fix you, easily the most inefficient and expensive form of “healthcare” in the world. Yet, we CAN truly transform healthcare. Each of us will interact with our healthcare system, whether for our families or ourselves. Let’s conscientiously create a system, based on science, research and experience, that we can each be proud of and that we would feel confident and comforted to take our loved ones to. Let’s transform our broken disease-care system into a model of true caring and compassion focused on health, wellness and disease prevention. The people who truly understand and practice this kind of care consistently, are trained and educated nurses. We come TO nursing with the desire and often mission to deliver this type of care. (Adapted from Transforming Healthcare: Healing You, Me and Our Broken Disease-care System, by Kim Evans)

This is Brian Mohika’s 2nd episode on Once a Nurse. He first appeared on December 30, 2019 to talk about his persistent and committed work as an entrepreneur to invent, sew, market and gain a small foothold in medical equipment with his Cathwear underwear for men and women who wear Foleys, Suprapubic, Biliary, and Nephrostomy catheters. As he watched the stress, embarrassment & frustration of individuals, who must wear leg catheters continuously, he designed CathWear to allow safe, clean, supportive and fashionable looking underwear. It was the DAY of that Episode that he was able to sign a manufacturing company to produce Cathwear in the USA. From there he has been catapulting to the stars, winning award after award and having his product accepted for Medicare payments. To capture the ascendence of his product and the foundation of his life as a compassionate, caring human being, Brian wrote a biography, called “Let It Flow”, soon to be released. We will talk about his and more!

Nurses are the bedrock of healthcare around the world. Without Nurses there is NO Healthcare (HC). While doctors & every HC provider contributes to the value of HC, it is nurses who are with the patient 24/7, best know the client & family and make the directives of other departments work for the patient. Nurses are are mandated to prevent injury & disease/ advocate for the patient. They want to focus on community-based education to prevent stress-related diseases. My guest, Glennae Davis, BSN, RN, and CEO of Rx for Life, LLC, a health equity consultancy and education agency says, “Anytime a career professional feels conflict, moral distress or stressed about a situation on the job, they must pause to take an assessment, make judgments/decisions putting health first.” Nurses MUST know how to cope with implicit bias on the job & prevent their own burnout. Aided by new workplace systems, fearful, distressed employees must receive representation, advocacy, support & education.

2021 is a NEW Year and New Economic landscape. Nurses have been hit hard in some Countries, States & Counties and others have been working overtime without days off. My own experience was I knew next to nothing about managing my finances except: “Save as much as you can!” I put it in a bank savings account for years. Then I discovered Universal Life Insurance & was able to borrow from it to finance 4 houses & 6 cars. Next was stocks, bonds and more. My Guest, Dan Dorval is President and CEO of Dorval & Chorne Financial Advisors. He has been working with the MN Nurses Association (MNA) nurses teaching and advising about finances for many years and thousands of clients. He understands the issues they face and the misunderstandings with their employers regarding wages and benefits. He has been an integral partner in the helping services the MNA has been able to offer its members. Call in with questions: 866-472-5792. Join us on January 4, 2021 at 1 PM ET/12 N CT/10 AM PT

My guests have come to the same place, Braver Angels, from VERY different directions. Dr. William (Bill) Doherty from Academia at the U of MN where he currently directs The Citizen Professional Center and cofounded the Braver Angels following the 2016 National Election, in an effort to allow members of both vitriolic parties (Democrat and Republican) come together in a safe environment to learn how to listen to one another. David S. Ball found the organization over 1 year later after 26 years as an Air Force flight nurse and dealing with the conflicts which naturally arise in those areas. Over the past 3 years, He has been the Massachusetts Coordinator of Braver Angels. Today they will bring together what they have learned in these past years and how it applies to the stressed relationships in healthcare.

My guest, Darlene Nelson, RN, founder of Expert Nurse Consultants, joined me on this show on April 13th along with Dr. Juan Nieto, ED physician. The description I gave then, STILL fits. “In the COVID-19 Pandemic in the USA, there are two fights going on. One against a virulent & dangerous new coronavirus & the other on behalf of the safety & protection of ‘essential’ workers across the country. ”The disease is doing an exceptional job at its mission: to infect & kill as many hosts as possible. The people, hospital administrations and political leaders are, to a large extent, failing miserably at their mission: To protect each & every healthcare worker and all essential employees.” We currently have passed 300,000 deaths (as of 12/15/20) and 17 million with the illness. We are nearing 3000 deaths of nurses (which is certainly an undercount.) Today huge numbers of Americans continue to ignore the admonitions to “Wear a Mask, Distance from Others and Wash your Hands.” How will this end?

Beth Battaglino, RN, CEO of HealthyWomen.org, well known for the incredible work she has been doing for over 25 years in clinical nursing and with HealthyWomen, will join me to talk about ALL things Current: Covid-19, her personal experience dealing with it as a maternal-fetal nurse, health inequities in our country and how they primarily negatively affect women. I expect to talk about the worries we each have regarding PTSD, Moral Trauma and the specter of suicide in healthcare now. We will definitely touch on the mission behind HealthyWomen, why it is the nation’s leading independent health resource for women and its most recent initiatives. Beth is the epitome of the “Nurse of the Future” ready and willing to act in the present to help women AND Nurses find their healthiest place inside their bodies, minds, lives and careers. Join us Monday, June 1, 2020 at 1 PM EDT/12 N CDT/ 10 AM PDT on VoiceAmerica.com

What has become abundantly apparent in 2020 is just how little the lay public know about hospitals & how they function, nurses & what they do and why there are no hospital beds anywhere in the country right now. What is amazing also is hearing healthcare professionals making comments not supported by science at all, like COVID 19 cannot be spread by people without symptoms. My guest Mary Turner, RN, President of the MN Nurses Association, was asked to speak to President Biden-elect with 3 other healthcare workers about COVID and what it has done to them and their peers. She has been on several news stations and now will talk with me about what the public does NOT understand about healthcare and what nurses do exactly. Join us on Monday, December 7, 2020 at 1 PM ET/12 N CT/10 AM PT

2020 International Year of the Nurse & Midwife was proposed to showcase the work that nurses do every day. It has proven to be a year of showing not only nurses’ knowledge, compassion and determination, but quite unexpectedly, has displayed ALL around the world the courage, depth of mission and passion for patients that nurses hold. This show is one of celebration with nurse leaders Janie Garner, Executive Director of the Show me Your Stethoscope organization and Cara Lunsford, CEO of HOLLIBLU.com community nurses’ app. We want to talk “nursing” in a future sense. How do we reset the Year of the Nurse in 2021 to create a new level of empowerment and transformation. Nurses are emerging from the Shadows and into the Light of collaboration toward Healthcare Reform, Health Equity, & Health Care (NOT our current Disease-Care). It is time that nurses are not only AT the decision-making table but LEADING the discussion. Join us Monday, 11/30/20 at 1 PM ET/12 N CT/10 AM PT

My guests for this Episode, Rosanne Raso & Linda Valentino, two of many CNO’s of NYC’s Hospitals, who met the first major onslaught of COVID-19 on the East Coast. We’ve heard a LOT about the incredible efforts of frontline nurses, doctors & essential personnel, but VERY little about the HEROS behind the scenes. On March 29, 2020 Linda received a call from the President & COO of Mount Sinai Hospital telling her to report to Mount Sinai Brooklyn to serve as the hospital’s Incident Commander. Having previously served as the CNO of that site, she knew the hospital and its staff. At that time, 25% of the staff, including the hospital’s President & CNO were out sick with COVID illness. The hospital was the first Ground ZERO in NYC, and she was to lead the hospital out of near collapse, due to the high volume of patients and sick staff. Rosanne Raso tells another gripping story of her role as VP & CNO of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center during this time

Marijuana for medical use has faced more than 80 years of ridicule, unscientific, unregulated, mishandling of the drug and decades of misinformation, myths and unethical management. Boomers have advocated for the legalization of the drug since the 50’s and 60’s, but it has only been since California, Colorado and a handful of other states did legalized medical marijuana, that it is being taken seriously to help with a wide variety of chronic and intractable health issues. My guests, Patty Gilk, RN and founder of Jes Naturals CBD Wellness and Jeri Schultz, MSN, RN and founder of Tulip Tree & Dose Medical Cannabis Nurse Consulting, are joining us today to share their professional knowledge of CBD, dispel myths and reinforce the efficacy of CBD in medical use. They will address Cannabis - Hemp vs Marijuana -Terpenes, Flavonoids, Entourage Effect and SO much more!

There may be no more critical issue in Nursing today than Nurse Turnover. That ONE subject covers all others: COVID-19, Work/life Balance, Burnout, Bullying, Boomer retirement, Career advancement, Inadequate onboarding of nurses, Nursing Leadership, Nursing Education, Innovation, Hospital Culture, Staffing, Retention Strategy, Leadership development, Supporting new leaders during transition, Leading the Millenial Nurse and Generation “Z” and SO MUCH MORE!!! My guest, Kristin Baird, a nationally regarded thought leader in healthcare culture, engagement and the patient experience, will join me to talk “Nurse Turnover”, based on her recent research for her White Paper of the same name. I firmly believe that without nurses, there IS no healthcare! Without significant increase in Nurse input to ALL major healthcare decisions, nurses will no longer stand for being placed last on the healthcare ledger page! Join me to Welcome Kristin Baird.