Don't Eat Your Young: A Nursing Podcast

Welcome back to Don't Eat Your Young, the podcast that delves into the inspiring stories and impactful work of individuals shaping the landscape of healthcare. In this episode, we shine a spotlight on Susan B. Davis, widely known as the Rescue RN, who has become a leading figure in cardiac arrest awareness, CPR training, and AED preparedness within communities. Susan B. Davis has dedicated her car...

Maggie Ortiz, a seasoned nurse with over 23 years of experience, brings a wealth of expertise to the nursing community. Having worked in diverse roles, including bedside nursing, administration, and as a Texas Board of Nursing investigator, Maggie is well-versed in protecting nurses from litigation. As the Founder of Advocates for Nurses, she educates fellow nurses on navigating challenges, shares...

Mel Cortez has been a nurse for 15 years, and an entrepreneur for many of those years. She noticed a gap in nursing and took action. In this episode, she shares her experience facing a violent patient in a community hospital, leading her to initiate a "ground-up" approach to empower nurses. Collaborating with military friends, Mel developed Cortex Gold, a comprehensive training program for healthc...

Jill Brandl was an RN who worked to become a Holistic Psych Mental Health Nurse Practitioner. Despite her education in mental health, Jill needed help with her own burnout from her years in healthcare, as well as dealing with trauma outside of her job. After what she describes as “total burnout”, Jill decided it was time to put herself first and begin the journey to a more healthy life. She steppe...

With the explosion of cannabis use in the U.S., Alicia Schaal saw a gap in knowledge for healthcare professionals. Without much evidence-based information to find, she decided to educate herself so she could share that knowledge with others, namely the nurses and physicians that were unsure how cannabis impacts the our patients and the care that we deliver.   Alicia is currently taking pharmacolog...

Being a nurse was the easy part compared to being a patient. Natalie D'Itri was an educator and was involved in oncology research as an RN. What she didn't anticipate was being a patient and learning how to navigate the healthcare system in a totally different capacity. In this week's episode, Beth talks with Natalie about her journey with breast cancer, from both perspectives – patient and nurse....

Welcome back to Season Four of "Don't Eat Your Young"! I'm your host, Beth Quass, and I am beyond excited to be back recording for this season. A huge thank you to all you amazing listeners who keep coming back to hear the incredible stories from nurses just like you. I'm incredibly grateful for the nurses who join me on the show, sharing their expertise, vulnerabilities, and experiences in this c...

Neonatal nurse practitioner Rachel Murray joins your host Beth Quaas to talk about her shift from nursing to also start working as a professional development trainer. She studied at Dale Carnegie Training, which gave her a unique perspective on how to train others. The program fanned her passion to educate people. She and Beth discuss her training methods she’s learned and how these training metho...

Beth talks with Allison Twede about her journey through nursing – from toxic workplace environments to admin positions to finally finding her calling to help other nurses heal. It’s a powerful conversation as they explore her path to healing herself while also following her calling to heal others. Allison Twede is a registered nurse, teacher, podcast host and creative entrepreneur. Allison has bee...

Nursing at Sea Her adventures started when she took a job as nurse on a Carnival Cruise at the turn of the century. The travel was a selling point, but Denise Gruzensky loved nursing in this unique environment. She worked as a nurse practitioner but could also work as a nurse when needed. Gruzensky’s taken advantage of the world of online consulting and sees a lot of good in this shift. When she f...

With the launch of NursePreneurs, Catie Harris created a mentorship program that empowers nurses to monetize their knowledge, develop business skills, and help healthcare delivery evolve. Join us today as Catie talks about her program and her journey to start it. Catie talks about her exploratory approach she takes with clients, and the varieties of areas nurses have ideas for great business ventu...

Meet Rachel After a discriminatory incident at work showed Rachel how the system thought of her and her fellow nurses, registered nurse Rachel Dick decided she needed to be in a place where she didn’t have to answer to anyone but herself. That led her on a journey to become a certified holistic nurse coach, working with nurses to unlock their own potential. Rachel coaches nurses and runs workshops...

Meet Sonya I was born and raised in Walterboro, South Carolina. I was told that at the age of three, I told my family that I wanted to be a nurse.  After high school, I attended college for two years at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, where I thought I wanted to major in Industrial Psychology.  Somehow, nursing was not on my compass at the time and I took a different path. I left Spelman and...

Meet Liz Liz Burkholder from Charlotte, North Carolina, joins Beth today. Liz Burkholder is an integrative, double-board certified Family Nurse Practitioner and Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, hypnotherapist, trauma specialist, and mind-body practitioner. She and Beth talk about holistic well-being and how to take care of yourself through deconstructive transformation. About Liz Liz...

Antra Boyd met Karen DiMarco when Karen was teaching nurses how to work and advocate for our patients by thinking outside the box. Through that chance meeting, they formed a company called RNegade. They are changing the way that nurses and others learn and make it fun and informative. RNegade offers continuing education credit by listening to podcasts with guests from various backgrounds and exper...

From Caring for Patients to Caring for Caregivers Tammy Ward has been in healthcare for 23 years. She moved from bedside nursing to becoming a CRNA. Throughout that process, she has realized that she has more to give. Her love for taking care of patients has moved out of the hospital setting to one of caring for the caregivers. She works with clients on a more personal basis, teaching them to put...

Chris came into nursing as a second career. For seven years, he has worked with cardiac patients in a large hospital where he takes care of some of the sickest patients. In order to do his job well, Chris needs time with each patient, resources to assist him in that care, and a safe environment to do so. But as we've seen, staff to patient ratios are not aligned, and resources are diminishing. Vio...

After struggling with the ever-shifting challenges of nursing during the pandemic, Angie Bailey realized she’d had enough. That’s when she retired from the profession and moved to a focus on the art of calligraphy. She found an incredible peace with it and now teaches it to help others find that sense of calm.  Angie joins Beth in this episode to talk about her struggles in the nursing field and h...

Meet Natalie D’Itri In this episode, Beth talks with Natalie D’Itri, a coach for nurses who want to grow in their professional lives as well as host of the Careerwise Nurse podcast. Their conversation ranges through Natalie’s background and how and why she moved into coaching. They talk about their goals to help nurses realize their career dreams and realize them. Learn more about supporting the D...

Meet Laurel Ash Beth and Laurel have a conversation about Laurel’s start in hospice and home care, working as a nurse practitioner, her transition to academia, her mentorship program, and more. Laurel currently goes out doing healthcare with seniors and is loving what she’s doing. She loves working in this capacity, and they talk about the return to a system where healthcare workers go out into th...

Susan Farese, a Force of Nature Susan has been a nurse, but has also worn many other hats as she’s moved through life. Currently, Susan runs SJF Communications – her own PR firm – where she helps pretty much anyone, including nurses market themselves and find the directions for their own lives they’re most excited about. It’s invigorating to listen to Susan as she is full of positive energy and be...

The Public Utility Model John Silver joins Beth to discuss the Public Utility Model, a plan to shift the healthcare insurance structure, bringing needed healthcare to everyone. A central council led by nurses – which would also include physicians and other allied healthcare professionals – would work to provide a better and stronger foundation for preventative healthcare for the people of the US,...

In this week’s episode, Beth is joined by new nurse Troy McMullen, a nurse of three years who started just before the pandemic hit. Beth and Troy talk about his journey to become a nurse and what that meant when COVID took over the world. He talks about the various locations he worked as a travel nurse and how similar they all were in the frustrations he had with the system’s lack of proper care f...

Maggie Ortiz In today’s episode, nurse advocate Maggie Ortiz joins your host Beth Quaas to talk about the challenges in our nursing system today. Why is it so frustratingly complicated and why does it seem to be working against the nurses in it? What can nurses do to protect themselves? How do they deal with liability? Do they need their own insurance? There’s a lot of information in today’s episo...

Sandra Capito In today’s episode – which was recorded September 2021, so information may be a bit out of date – nurse Sandra Capito joins your host Beth Quaas all the way from Melbourne, Australia, to talk about her work as a nurse to bring more compassion and empathy to the workplace for patients and fellow nurses. The goal? Making everyone feel worthy. Learn more about supporting the Don’t Eat Y...