Ask Nurse Alice

Let’s Make a Deal game show hosted by Wayne Brady aired their "Hooray For Nurses" episode on May 8, 2023 - ALL contestants were nurses! Nurse.org was pleased to donate a $20,000 prize to one of the lucky contestants. Nurse Tiffany Stewart won the Mega Money Monday prize!

In an interview with Nurse Alice, Tiffany Stewart, a labor and delivery nurse and winner of the $20,000 cash prize, shares her experience competing on the show while dressed up in an outrageous costume. Stewart discusses her nursing journey, her passion for women's health, and her excitement about being on the show with other amazing nurses. Nurse Alice and Stewart also discuss the benefits of choosing a career in nursing, including the many opportunities available to nurses in different fields.

>>Read about nurse Tiffany Stewart's experience on Let's Make A Deal here!

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In this episode, we dive into the inspiring story of Spencer Jones, a nurse innovator who was recently voted by thousands of nurses as Nurse.org's Nurse Innovator of the Year. Spencer is a nurse entrepreneur and the inventor of SafeBreak Vascular, a patented breakaway device for IV catheters that reduces IV complications and preserves IV catheters. His second vascular access invention called BVAD is a dual-lumen peripheral IV catheter that provides patients a pain-free blood sampling solution to eliminate painful needlesticks and finger pricks. Spencer is currently the Chief Technology Officer and VP of Sales at Lapovations, a laparoscopic medical device company. 

During the interview, Jones discusses his background in nursing, his experience working in various healthcare settings, and the challenges he faced while developing his innovative product. He also shares his insights on the importance of collaboration and teamwork in healthcare, as well as the role of technology in improving patient outcomes.

Throughout the episode, Jones's passion for nursing and dedication to improving healthcare shines through, and listeners are sure to come away inspired and motivated to make a difference in their own communities. Whether you are a healthcare professional or simply interested in learning more about innovation in healthcare, this episode is a must-listen.

>>Read about nurse entrepreneur Spencer Jones here!

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As a nurse and healthcare provider, how well do you think you take culturally diverse patients? Outside of task-oriented things? In this episode, Nurse Alice speaks with Dr. Raj Sundar, physician and podcast Host of the Healthcare for Humans Podcast about how we can better understand, connect and service our patients of different cultures.

The duo encourages you to ask yourself the following questions, 

- How else do you measure the quality of care that you provide? 
- How often do you consider social determinants of your patient’s health when providing care? 
- How often do you consider historical, cultural, language, or religious factors and race in the care you provide? 

If you included those things in your metrics for “good care” – how would you score yourself now? 

In this episode, Nurse Alice speaks with Dr. Raj Sundar, physician and podcast Host of Healthcare for Humans Podcast about how we can better understand, connect and service our patients of different cultures.

>>Read about Dr. Raj Sundar here!

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In this episode, Nurse Alice has the pleasure of interviewing Jonathan Llamas, a nurse practitioner and recipient of the prestigious Nurse Icon Award for 2023. Jonathan shares his inspiring journey of becoming a nurse, the challenges he faced along the way, and his work as a nurse. He also talks about his thoughts on the future of nursing and offers advice for aspiring nurses.

Jonathan discusses the following points in this episode, 

Jonathan Llamas' interview provides valuable insights into the challenges and rewards of a career in nursing and the impact that nurses can make in the lives of their patients. It is an inspiring conversation for anyone interested in nursing or healthcare.

>>Read about the Nurse ICON Awards and all the nominees here!

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Are you tired of nursing practice and policy being dictated by non-nurses? And I mean, without nursing input or not enough input from nurses? How can we, as nurses, make our voices heard and become drivers on important issues that impact us and the work we do? While rallying together and voting is important, the truth is we also need nurses to run for office and be strategically placed in leadership positions and in politics to drive the agenda and propositions. But I didn't get that type of training in nursing school, so how do you prepare for that?

In this episode, Nurse Alice speaks with Kimberly Gordon, co-founder of Healing Politics, an educational, non-partisan, non-profit 501(c)3 organization. They are on a mission to inspire, motivate, recruit, & train nurses & midwives to run for elected office up & down the ballot while building a culture of civic engagement within the professions.

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You walk into work and hit the floor running. It's one big emergency after another. You can't catch a break and it feels like nothing is going right. You're PISSED!  But who are you mad at? And what for? And did you take it out on anyone? You may not realize it, but you just may be displacing anger towards others and things that aren't the cause of your frustrations. As professionals who work in high acuity situations and with different personalities, it's key that we learn to identify when we're upset or angry, why, and how to deal with it in a healthy way, so our patients, the care we provide, and our own mental & physical health aren't negatively impacted. 

In this episode, Nurse Alice shares six tips on how to identify when you're feeling frustration or anger, how to identify the cause, and how to manage (prevent) displaced anger.

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How many times has a friend or family member asked you as a nurse to provide your opinion on a skin rash or ask advice about a medical condition or medication? While the caregiver in you is usually happy to be of assistance because you've done tons of patient education at work, what about when you're NOT at work? Did you know that could possibly ruin a good family or friendly relationship by causing unnecessary worry or giving erroneous advice that could lead to missed care or a lawsuit, especially if it's deemed that you're operating out of your scope of practice?  

In this episode Nurse Alice offers advice on how to juggle being a helpful and well intended off duty nurse and friend/family to someone who is asking for medical advice so you avoid any personal and professional trouble. 

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Becoming a long-time TV medical contributor as a nurse wasn’t easy. In fact, I learned a lot of hard lessons along the way that I’m so eager to share and wish someone had told me.

With the growing number of news stories about nurses recently, it appears that more and more negative stories are emerging. As the largest segment of the healthcare workforce and with the power of social media, nurses have the power to educate, empower, do damage control, and change the narrative. 

With sound bites and clickbait, and the desire to be the first to report on a topic - without doing thorough research, talking to participants, fact-checking, and presenting a well-rounded objective story - the possibility of getting the story wrong is very possible and can be damaging to the nurse and the nursing profession.

In this episode Nurse Alice talks about the nurse's growing role in the media and shares some tips on how nurses can protect themselves, the credibility of the profession, and educate their viewership. She also provides different story angles that people can use to help tell the same story from different lenses and to be well-rounded in educating the public, meeting the interest of different segments of the public, and prolonging the story's longevity of interest. 

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Have you ever gone to work and your patient assignment was straight bananas so you had every intention of walking up to the charge nurse to give them a piece of your mind?

In this episode Nurse Alice addresses Beth's question by first advising her that you can't just tell the charge nurse that they suck but instead provides her some insight into the charge nurse role and provides tips for what nurses should do when their assignment seems overwhelming. 

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When inclement weather and natural disasters occur, hospitals and other healthcare facilities are expected to remain operating. And we all know without nurses, hospitals would not be able to keep their doors open. So what do you as a nurse do during inclement weather? When is it safe and not safe to travel to/from work? And how does it impact your schedule?

In this episode Nurse Alice responds to a caller and explains inclement weather, where that policy should be, and some fundamental things you should know before, after, and during the weather crisis so you are prepared, can be decisive, and stay informed. 

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