The Self Care Unit

CW://: Suicide This week, for a truly great Mental Health Matters episode, Carley and Sarah welcome Hunter Prosper to the pod! Listeners will probably recognize Hunter from TikTok and Instagram, where he has amassed a huge following sharing his life as a nurse and the stories and lives he encounters on and off the job. He's become something of a master storyteller, and that's where we focused our...

CW://: Eating Disorders/Disordered Eating This week, for a very special Mental Health Matters episode, Carley and Sarah talk with Danielle Ruhl! Known for her TV appearances, Danielle is also a fierce advocate for speaking about mental health, her openness with her feelings helps to pave the path for others to follow. The conversation with this amazing woman starts with a discussion of mental heal...

This week, we get a behind the scenes look at the two amazing organizations behind The Self Care Unit, Operation Happy Nurse and Don't Clock Out. To do so, we hear the inside scoop from their founders, Shannon McPeek and Sarah Warren. By interviewing each other, we learn about what motivated them to start their work, the programs and offerings both organizations provide, and some spoilers for thei...

We're back for another educational episode of The Self Care Unit. On today’s episode, Carley and Sarah learn all about meditation from the esteemed Benjamin W. Decker. Ben is a social activist, author, meditation teacher and entrepreneur. He hosts the Modern Spirituality Show and is the author of Practical Meditation for Beginners: 10 Days to a Happier, Calmer You. His expertise guiding people in...

This week on The Self Care Unit, we have really special Ask A Nurse episode for you, as Carley and Sarah were joined by the lovely Nikki Alvarez! Nikki is very popular on TikTok @nikkialvarezz, where she discusses work-life balance as a nurse and her use of reading as stress relief. The latter is why we were thrilled to have her on the pod, as we tackle all things reading, books, and stress relief...

The Self Care Unit has a brand new Ask a Nurse for you this week! This episode is all about learning to become a nurse, to hopefully help out the students, recent grads, and new nurses out there! What kind of soft skills do you wish you had learned in nursing school? How do you move around and network in the professional nursing world? And most importantly, how should you prepare for the NCLEX and...

TW // Sexual Violence/Assault For this week's Mental Health Matters, The Self Care Unit is joined by Mike Johnson for a very special episode. Mike is an author, speaker, Air Force veteran, sex coach and incredible advocate for self love and talking openly about mental health. The conversation is real and intimate this week, covering mental health, sex, and trauma, the intersection of all three, an...

This week on The Self Care Unit, we have a new Mental Health Matters episode! Sarah and Carley are joined by Jesse Katches. Jesse is a mental health advocate who works to bring to light mental health struggles and support his followers by giving them resources for better management and improved way of living. His TikTok's pack so much information and assistance in a condensed and fun format! We we...

The Self Care Unit was thrilled to have Balanda Atis as our guest this week! Balanda's credentials are extensive! She is the head of scientific communications for L’Oréal Paris in the U.S, and is a pioneering scientist and champion for diversity in beauty, driving innovation at L’Oréal for more than a decade. Previously, she managed L’Oréal USA’s Women of Color Lab and Face Lab, where she worked t...

This week, The Self Care Unit welcomes comedienne and RN Grace Amaku, aka Grace_Africa on TikTok, to the podcast. Grace joins us to talk about comedy and mental health, and to help us decide if laughter truly is the best medicine!  Shannon and Sarah talk with Grace about her journey from the bedside to the microphone, the ways comedy helps people cope and heal, how she brings her background and kn...

The Self Care Unit team is continuing our blazing start to 2023 with another fantastic Ask A Nurse! This week, Joe asks Carley and Sarah about why they made the decisions they made on their journey into and within nursing. That’s right, it’s a nurse journey episode! How did they get to their individual nursing units? What are their favorite aspects of said units? What kinds of patients are their f...

On this episode of Ask A Nurse for The Self Care Unit, we are ringing in the New Year by talking about nursing favs! Joe asks our lovely co-hosts, Sarah and Carley, to talk up their go-to brands, chat about their favorite scrubs and swag, and maybe settle the debate on the comfiest shoes for nurses. Carley and Sarah also tackle the most important question: favorite snacks for those long shifts. Fi...

CW://: Suicide This week, Self Care Unit is joined by incredibly impressive Corey Feist, a cofounder of the Dr. Lorna Breen foundation. Corey has also authored numerous publications on the need to support the well-being of the healthcare workforce, and he has served as an expert in multiple forums including as a keynote speaker, panelist, and moderator, as well as provided formal testimony in the...

CW :://:: Suicidal Ideation This week, for a really special Mental Health Matters episode, Carley and Sarah are joined by the incredible Dr. Courtney Tracy! Dr. Tracy is a world-renowned therapist and creator of the “HUMAN First'' movement. She is also the host of The Truth Doctor Show where she dives into vulnerable conversations of what it means to be human. We quickly get into the real stuff wi...

This week on Self Care Unit, Carley and Sarah were thrilled to welcome Sandra Payne to the podcast! Sandra is a former registered nurse turned Holistic Wellness Coach. She specializes in trauma-informed care and brings her experience as a nurse into her work today. We continue diving into the mental health realities of healthcare workers and how the stresses of the job can affect us. We also talk...

This week on Self Care Unit, Carley and Sarah are joined by Sam Calvin. Sam is a psychotherapist who moved into the profession after working for years as a first responder. As a mental health professional, he has done research and work with psychological first-aid, trauma-informed care, and trauma screening, so we were so grateful he took the time to share his expertise with us! We ask him about h...

We're back with another Ask A Nurse for The Self Care Unit! This week, Carley and Sarah, with Joe asking the questions, continue the conversation we started last week about balance in nursing. It's absolutely vital that nurses feel a sense of balance in their lives, so what can we do to help make that happen? We discuss how they handle when a loved one is in the hospital, tackle how long it takes...

On this episode of Ask A Nurse for The Self Care Unit, Joe has Carley and Sarah focus their energies on the topic of Balance. How can nurses create a sense of balance in their lives and careers? What actions, habits, or lifestyles help more than others in the quest for balance? How does setting boundaries and enforcing them help maintain balance? What can nurses do when boundaries are crossed by c...

CW: Disordered Eating The Self Care Unit was joined by the incredible Sonia Jhas for a brand new Mental Health Matters episode! Sonia is a Mindset and Wellness Coach, motivational speaker, and fitness guru inspired by a passion for helping other people, and that immediately comes through whenever you hear her speak! Sonia shares her journey with our hosts, and she talks about how she moved from Fi...

Re-released episode from Happy Hour with Operation Happy Nurse: "This week, we are joined by the lovely Lindsey Shelton. Lindsey is an ICU travel nurse, mental health advocate, and digital creator. As a nurse, she created @ScrubHacks on Instagram to provide advice and tips for ICU and travel nurses and to create an open space to talk about mental health. Lindsey shares her journey to becoming a nu...

Self Care Unit has another fantastic educational episode for you this week! We had the pleasure of having the esteemed Diane Sieg on the podcast to talk about how nurses can care for themselves and each other. As a speaker, author, life coach, nurse, and yoga teacher, Diane brings resilience skills to healthcare organizations in so many ways. She is an incredible advocate for nurse wellbeing, and...

Welcome to the first educational episode of The Self Care Unit! Today, Sarah and Carley are joined by Dr. JaQuinda Jackson. Dr. Jackson is a licensed trauma-focused therapist, who specializes in trauma informed therapy, as well as mental health performance training. With our goal of learning more about her field of expertise, Dr. Jackson walks us through both the basics of trauma, as well as the i...

On this second episode of Ask A Nurse for The Self Care Unit, we continue to tackle important questions and give our honest takes on the realities of the nursing and healthcare world. In that effort, Self Care Unit hosts Carley and Sarah focus their energy on all of Joe’s questions about motivation. How can nurses help each other with motivation? How can honest communication help with so many of t...

What’s that? It’s the very first episode of Ask A Nurse, as part of the brand new Self Care Unit! To begin our new era, nurses Carley and Josh are joined by Joe! These episodes will feature Joe as the resident non-nurse, asking questions chosen by him or submitted by our listeners to our amazing nurses. The goal is to both learn something and tackle the hottest topics in the nursing world. What yo...

A truly amazing Mental Health Matters for you this week, Shannon and Carley are joined by the incredible Tay Dome! Tay is a mental health advocate who started Lemons by Tay to share her journey of learning to put her mental health and self care first and to provide resources and community to all of us trying to do the same. Beyond that work, Tay is also a nurse, and she shares her experience worki...