The Conversing Nurse podcast

Send us Fan Mail Kristin Hansen is an enthusiastic, energetic, and highly skilled PICC nurse. However, she admits that it wasn't always easy for her to transition from starting IVs on premature babies in the NICU to placing PICC lines on adults. But with practice and persistence, she learned everything about this interesting nursing specialty and we are so lucky she is sharing her knowledge w...

Send us Fan Mail This week I had an informative and fun conversation about money with my guest, nurse, and finance coach, April Waddell. Yes, you heard me right, I said fun. Talking about money can create anxiety in some and I’m no different but April’s positive and hopeful spirit helped me keep calm and carry on. After retiring from her work as a Pediatric ICU nurse, April founded Nurse Money Dat...

Send us Fan Mail Myra Gamble is so chill and laid-back, it’s hard to believe she’s a Trauma ICU nurse. She’s also done emergency room nursing, hospice, home health, cath lab, interventional radiology, and telemetry. And I imagine that such a wide range of experience has only made her a better ICU nurse. As I listened to her recount stories from the COVID ICU, I remembered the toll it took on so ma...

Send us Fan Mail My guest this week, Lynn John, is a smart, tenacious woman. Deciding in high school to become a nurse, Lynn was told that would never happen. Armed with a prove-them-wrong attitude, she forged on and obtained her Master's in nursing. But after several years of working under institutional abuse in the form of unsafe staffing and mandatory overtime, she realized she did not wan...

Send us Fan Mail Cassidie Thomas is a ray of sunshine on a cloudy day. This week, I had a conversation with her about fertility nursing, which is a fascinating field that I knew little about until now. I learned that fertility nurses take care of a diverse group of patients, including couples who struggle with infertility, egg donors, individuals, surrogates, and cancer patients who want to preser...

Send us Fan Mail **This episode discusses suicide, depression, and addiction, which may be triggering topics for some. Reach out to a mental health professional if you are experiencing depression, addiction, or suicidal ideation** Mental Health Resouces for Healthcare Workers and First Responders: National Alliance on Mental Health (Nurse-Led): Debriefing the Front Lines Don't Clock Out If yo...

Send us Fan Mail Hey guys! Today I’m talking about retirement because it's been two years since I retired from nursing! And for anybody who's been with me for a while, you've heard me talk about the challenges of retirement, and there certainly have been some. There have also been many blessings and we'll talk about those too, so let’s get to it! The Holmes-Rahe Life Stress Inv...

Send us Fan Mail This week I had a great conversation about all things remote nursing. My guests are Maggie Lajaunie, Head of Clinical Services, and Blaire McElroy,  Clinical Services manager for the remote care company, Veta Health. I came into the conversation with ZERO knowledge about what remote nursing entailed and I left with a new appreciation of it. Like the Grinch, my heart grew three siz...

Send us Fan Mail It was a thrill to reconnect with my colleague and friend, Kari Replogle. Kari has a gentle personality that perfectly suits her role as a NICU nurse. But don't let that delightful personality fool you. Kari is also a highly skilled practitioner and self-proclaimed lover of the adrenaline rush. In our conversation, Kari reflected on seeing her mom help people as a nurse, whet...

Send us Fan Mail **CAUTION** In this episode we discuss mental health, including suicide. If you are experiencing mental health challenges and have thought of harming yourself, there is help for you. Call or text 988, the Suicide/Crisis Hotline. Help is available 24/7/365. Please reach out. What do psych nursing, powerlifting, and The Walking Dead have in common? My guest for this week, Tara &quot...

Send us Fan Mail Ever since I started this podcast, I have been looking forward to talking with a nurse who is also a JD. Recently, I got the opportunity to have an insightful conversation with Kwamane Liddell. Kwamane is a healthcare visionary. You only need to glance at his LinkedIn profile to see the many accolades he has received from various sectors, including healthcare, business, innovation...

Send us Fan Mail Paras Barnett was leading a robust life as a nurse. She worked at a prestigious institution, provided expert nursing care to her patients, was a strong organizational leader, and a loving wife and friend. However, despite all this, she felt like something was missing and was on the verge of burnout. So she became a Caritas coach, and in the process, learned how to prioritize self-...

Send us Fan Mail Meet Danielle Sarik, a dedicated pediatric nurse scientist who is committed to improving the lives of our most vulnerable population. I always enjoy hearing about how nurses first entered the profession, and I was surprised to learn that Danielle was inspired to become a nurse after working on global health policy with a nurse leader. As the Director of Nursing Research for Nichol...

Send us Fan Mail As we approach Veterans Day this week, I want to introduce Captain Jennifer Savage-Cawley, a long-time friend and colleague who served as a nurse in the United States Air Force. Since starting this podcast, I've been eager to talk with a military nurse and Jennifer made that possible. I was immediately curious to know why Jennifer joined the Air Force. Her response was hilari...

Send us Fan Mail In this week's episode, I had the pleasure of interviewing D.D. Finder, aka, Delta Delta Finder. D.D. has had a remarkable 20-year healthcare career which has taken him from the Peace Corps to an EMT, from flight nursing to the ICU, and landing in Interventional Radiology. Now, there is a new chapter in his life: author. And what does he write about? Something he is intimatel...

Send us Fan Mail * * WARNING** During this episode, we discuss infant loss, suicide, and grief **PROCEED WITH CAUTION** On a recent Sunday morning in October, I sat down with my long-time friend and colleague, Angela Gonzales. The month of October is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month and we brought awareness to this all too common and often minimized topic by remembering Angela’s son, Dani...

Send us Fan Mail I recently looked up the word 'mogul' in the dictionary and found this definition: an important or powerful person. This perfectly describes Savannah Arroyo, who is a nurse by profession and an accomplished real estate investor as well. After years as a nurse administrator, Savannah was seeking a better balance between work and life, aka less work and more life. And that...

Send us Fan Mail I had so much fun talking with Giovanna Navarro, her passion and energy were palpable! She’s a dynamic and accomplished nurse with a remarkable range of abilities. With over twenty years of nursing experience, she is also a devoted wife and mother, as well as a savvy businesswoman. As a HeartMath practitioner, she is highly regarded for her exceptional emotional intelligence. She...

Send us Fan Mail When you hear the words "health policy", what comes to mind? A dry, barren desert? Not for John Silver, a nurse who has dedicated decades of his life to studying it and believes it’s anything but dry and lacking in substance. He was so passionate about understanding it that he left nursing to pursue a Ph. D. in comparative studies. He serves as President of the organizat...

Send us Fan Mail Sarah Waldron is a Women's Health Nurse Practitioner and a Certified Nurse Midwife who started out in High School volunteering in L&D, was pulled into a room to watch a birth and was hooked! After becoming a nurse, her path to midwifery was not linear. Along the way, she worked in Med-Surg and pediatric emergency care but her experience in these different areas of nursing...

Send us Fan Mail With so many unknowns in the world, it was nice to talk with someone who knows himself so well. Licensed vocational nurse,  Andres Perez knows his motivation to be a nurse, knows his scope of practice, knows he loves emergency nursing, and knows he wants to continue his education to be a registered nurse. He also knows what brings down his stress level: music.  Between the voice a...

Send us Fan Mail How do you move from emergency nursing to technology? Patrick Pickarts did it with enthusiasm, his get-out-of-jail-free card, and a smidge of reckless abandon because that's how he rolls. He admits that learning how to tweak an electronic health record is not as easy as caring for a patient with a tweaked back. Patrick's current project involves utilizing technology to a...

Send us Fan Mail I was fascinated by Janelle Barowski's profile on LinkedIn and knew I had to connect with her. She's a nurse and a talented freelance medical writer, having worked with some of the biggest names in the industry. Janelle found her calling in medical writing after realizing that bedside nursing no longer fulfilled her, and has since achieved the work-life balance that many...

Send us Fan Mail Today’s episode is all about THE premier digital newsletter made by nurses, for nurses and it’s called the Nursing Beat.  At its helm are CEO Tamara AL-Yassin and COO, Hannah Berns. This power duo mustered up their courage, left the emergency room for the board room, and haven’t looked back. It takes a village to create a newsletter this good so Tamara and Hannah have surrounded t...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to The Conversing Nurse podcast's anniversary episode! Today marks a year since we started this journey, and it has been an incredible one, full of challenges and accomplishments. This year in podcasting has been full of firsts: creating a website, managing social media, recording, publishing, and just all the techy things in general. After retiring from 36 years in n...