Episode Summary:
In this inspiring episode, host Beth Quaas sits down with emergency nurse and ZooMates founder Laura Siwinski, a mom of five who transformed her personal journey with her autistic son into a powerful visual-communication tool. ZooMates is a free, ad-free platform using real animal photography to support communication for children, people with autism, patients with aphasia or dementia, and anyone who benefits from visual cues.

Laura shares how her nursing background, her family’s experience, and her passion for helping others sparked this innovative resource. Beth and Laura discuss how nurses can use ZooMates at the bedside, in the ER, in neuro settings, pediatric units, and even at home to reduce fear, encourage communication, and improve patient connection.

Key Topics Covered:

• Laura’s nursing journey and love for ER nursing.
• Using animal imagery for language development and emotional expression.
• Innovation in nursing and how simple ideas can become powerful tools.
• How ZooMates is expanding with new features, partnerships, and real photography.
• Encouragement for nurses exploring entrepreneurship.

Resources & Links:
Visit ZooMates website https://zoomates.org/.
Follow ZooMates journey on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.

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Your support helps us continue bringing valuable conversations to the nursing community. If you know someone in healthcare who's making a significant impact, we want to hear about them! Whether it's a nurse, NP, CRNA, student, aide, manager, supervisor, or even a patient advocate driving positive change and inspiring others, we’d love to shine a spotlight on their work. Nominate someone today by filling out this form.

Episode Summary:
In this powerful episode, returning guest Amy Siple provides an urgent update on her legal battle with the Board of Nursing. What started as a missed license renewal during a family crisis has escalated into a years-long fight revealing major problems in nursing oversight and disciplinary systems. Amy explains her recent administrative hearing loss, her upcoming judicial appeal, and the constitutional concerns involved, including due process and First Amendment issues. She also highlights how minor clerical mistakes can end a nurse’s career and how little accountability state boards often face. 

Beyond her own case, Amy has become a national advocate driving legislative reform, gaining bipartisan support, and pushing for model laws to protect nurses from unfair and harmful disciplinary practices. This episode is essential listening for nurses, students, and healthcare leaders.

Key Topics Covered:

• A lapsed license — even without practicing — can lead to discipline, permanent databases, and job loss.
• Kansas’ Board of Nursing faces bipartisan scrutiny for overreach, uneven discipline, and profit-driven fines.
• Real-life cases show nurses losing careers over button-click errors, credit card typos, and non-clinical issues.
• Legislative hearings revealed millions collected in fines and systemic inconsistencies in discipline.

Resources & Links:
Connect with Amy Siple on LinkedIn and Youtube.
Get access to Amy’s Substack account.
Visit Amy's website.

Subscribe, Rate, and Review Don't Eat Your Young!
Your support helps us continue bringing valuable conversations to the nursing community. If you know someone in healthcare who's making a significant impact, we want to hear about them! Whether it's a nurse, NP, CRNA, student, aide, manager, supervisor, or even a patient advocate driving positive change and inspiring others, we’d love to shine a spotlight on their work. Nominate someone today by filling out this form.

Episode Summary:
In this powerful episode of Don't Eat Your Young, host Beth Quas sits down with Dr. Misty Wilkie, PhD, RN, and Director of the Center of Indigenous People Health and Nursing at the University of Minnesota. Misty shares her inspiring journey from being a young single mother to becoming one of the few American Indian nurses with a PhD.

We explore how her Ojibwemowin heritage shaped her path in nursing, her commitment to mentoring minority nursing students, and her work developing culturally responsive simulation tools. Misty also discusses the importance of building trust, honoring traditions, and providing holistic support to Indigenous nursing students.

Key Topics Covered:

• Supporting minority nursing students, particularly those from American Indian/Alaska Native/Indigenous backgrounds.
• Addressing healthcare disparities.
• Cultural humility in clinical training.
• The power of mentorship in nursing.
• Nursing education and retention strategies.

Resources & Links:
Connect with Dr. Misty Wilkie on LinkedIn.
Visit Dr. Misty Wilkie’s University of Minnesota page.
Dr. Misty Wilkie’s article about Doctoral Education Pathway for American Indian/Alaska Native Nurses.

Subscribe, Rate, and Review Don't Eat Your Young!
Your support helps us continue bringing valuable conversations to the nursing community. If you know someone in healthcare who's making a significant impact, we want to hear about them! Whether it's a nurse, NP, CRNA, student, aide, manager, supervisor, or even a patient advocate driving positive change and inspiring others, we’d love to shine a spotlight on their work. Nominate someone today by filling out this form.

Episode Summary:
In this powerful episode of Don’t Eat Your Young, host Beth Quaas sits down with nurse practitioner, educator, and healthcare leader Amy Siple to share her shocking story. After 30+ years of spotless nursing service, Amy’s career was nearly destroyed due to a clerical licensing error during her husband's cancer treatment. Together, they uncover the harsh realities of board investigations, license renewals, and the lack of protections for nurses.

Key Topics Covered:

• Why nurse licensing boards aren't your ally during investigations
• How failing to renew a license on time can result in accusations of unprofessional conduct
• The critical importance of malpractice insurance license protection riders
• How public shaming and broken systems are driving compassionate nurses out of practice

Resources & Links:
Connect with Amy Siple on LinkedIn and Youtube.
Visit Amy's website.
Amy Siple’s article about nurse practitioner-led care can be found on PubMed.

Subscribe, Rate, and Review Don't Eat Your Young!
Your support helps us continue bringing valuable conversations to the nursing community. If you know someone in healthcare who's making a significant impact, we want to hear about them! Whether it's a nurse, NP, CRNA, student, aide, manager, supervisor, or even a patient advocate driving positive change and inspiring others, we’d love to shine a spotlight on their work. Nominate someone today by filling out this form.

Episode Summary:
In this powerful episode of Don’t Eat Your Young, host Beth Quaas sits down with nursing leader Connie Delaney, Dean of the University of Minnesota School of Nursing, to explore transformational leadership, interprofessional collaboration, and the future of healthcare. Connie shares how her early experiences shaped her philosophy of leading with love, the impact of nursing informatics, and her unwavering support for full practice authority for nurse practitioners.

Key Topics Covered:

• Connie’s journey into nursing and leadership
• Why honoring every voice in healthcare matters
• Lessons from transforming a nursing school
• How nurses can advocate for change from within
• The future of AI in nursing and its human implication

Resources & Links:
Connect with Connie White Delaney on LinkedIn.
Visit Connie's website.
Igniting Transformational Change book.
Find the School of Nursing on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
Winning the CRNA Interview: A Step-By-Step Guide to Admissions Success.

Subscribe, Rate, and Review Don't Eat Your Young!
Your support helps us continue bringing valuable conversations to the nursing community. If you know someone in healthcare who's making a significant impact, we want to hear about them! Whether it's a nurse, NP, CRNA, student, aide, manager, supervisor, or even a patient advocate driving positive change and inspiring others, we’d love to shine a spotlight on their work. Nominate someone today by filling out this form.

Episode Summary:
In this eye-opening episode, host Beth Quaas welcomes Dr. Beth Sanford, a seasoned nurse educator and passionate advocate for vitamin D awareness, to explore the critical role vitamin D plays in physical, cognitive, and emotional health. From personal stories to evidence-based research, Dr. Sanford shares powerful insights about how vitamin D deficiency affects not just the general population but especially nurses, night shift workers, students, and healthcare professionals.

You’ll learn why this “low-hanging fruit” is often overlooked in clinical care, how to assess your own risk, and what steps you can take to improve your health—and maybe even save lives.

Key Topics Covered:

• What vitamin D does in the body (and why it’s vital for nurses!)
• Common causes of deficiency (including medication use and sunscreen habits)
• How geographic location and skin tone impact vitamin D levels
• The connection between vitamin D deficiency and mental health, pregnancy, cognitive function, and cancer risk
• Tools and resources for both patients and clinicians

Resources & Links:
Connect with Dr. Beth Sanford on LinkedIn.
Visit Beth's website.
Dr. Beth Sanford touches on this topic in her podcast episode:

• Vitamin D and Immune Health (2022)
• Vitamin D and Gut Health (2023)

Subscribe, Rate, and Review Don't Eat Your Young!
Your support helps us continue bringing valuable conversations to the nursing community. If you know someone in healthcare who's making a significant impact, we want to hear about them! Whether it's a nurse, NP, CRNA, student, aide, manager, supervisor, or even a patient advocate driving positive change and inspiring others, we’d love to shine a spotlight on their work. Nominate someone today by filling out this form.

Episode Summary:
In this inspiring episode of Don't Eat Your Young, host Beth Quaas sits down with author and professor Melissa Pritchard to dive deep into the life and legacy of Florence Nightingale — the true original "GOAT" (Greatest of All Time) in nursing.
Melissa shares the incredible story behind her novel Flight of the Wild Swan and how a serendipitous visit to the Florence Nightingale Museum led her to chronicle Nightingale's groundbreaking impact on healthcare, nursing leadership, public health reform, and the modern role of nurses today.

Learn how Florence Nightingale’s vision, statistical genius, and unwavering compassion still influence nursing practice, healthcare systems, and women's leadership more than 200 years later. If you’re a nurse, healthcare worker, history lover, or leader, this episode will leave you inspired and proud of your profession.

Key Topics Covered:

• Melissa Pritchard’s journey to writing Flight of the Wild Swan
• Florence Nightingale’s revolutionary contributions to nursing and healthcare
• Nursing leadership lessons from Florence Nightingale
• How Nightingale’s work in the Crimean War shaped modern healthcare
• The power of calling, service, and compassionate leadership

Resources & Links:
Connect with Melissa Pritchard on Facebook and Instagram.
Get your copy of Flight of the Wild Swan here.
Visit Melissa's website.

Subscribe, Rate, and Review Don't Eat Your Young!
Your support helps us continue bringing valuable conversations to the nursing community. If you know someone in healthcare who's making a significant impact, we want to hear about them! Whether it's a nurse, NP, CRNA, student, aide, manager, supervisor, or even a patient advocate driving positive change and inspiring others, we’d love to shine a spotlight on their work. Nominate someone today by filling out this form.

Episode Summary:
In this powerful episode of Don't Eat Your Young, host Beth Quaas sits down with Megan Carter—nurse leader turned consultant—to unpack the harsh realities of nurse leadership, burnout, and bullying in healthcare. Megan opens up about her own journey from bedside nurse to associate chief nursing officer, the toll it took on her well-being, and how a six-month sabbatical led to the creation of MC Healthcare Consulting.

Together, they explore:

• Why many nurses resist leadership roles—and why we need them to reconsider
• The hidden toll of peer-to-peer bullying at the leadership level
• How Megan is helping nurse leaders reclaim time, purpose, and balance
• Tips to navigate toxic cultures and advocate for yourself with confidence
• The meaning behind the term “Chaos Whisperer”—and why it might be your next identity

If you're a nurse navigating your path in leadership or looking for hope in the chaos, this episode is your permission slip to thrive.

Resources & Links:
Connect with Megan Carter on LinkedIn.
Visit Megan's website.

Subscribe, Rate, and Review Don't Eat Your Young!
Your support helps us continue bringing valuable conversations to the nursing community. If you know someone in healthcare who's making a significant impact, we want to hear about them! Whether it's a nurse, NP, CRNA, student, aide, manager, supervisor, or even a patient advocate driving positive change and inspiring others, we’d love to shine a spotlight on their work. Nominate someone today by filling out this form.

Episode Summary:
In this episode of Don't Eat Your Young, we sit down with Maureen Metzger, a passionate advocate for nurse well-being and resilience. Maureen shares practical strategies to help nurses maintain their mental, emotional, and physical health while navigating the challenges of the profession. From self-care and mindfulness to workplace support and professional boundaries, we explore the essential ingredients for well-being in nursing. Tune in to gain insights and actionable tips to enhance your work-life balance and sustain a fulfilling career in healthcare.

What You'll Learn in This Episode:
- The key components of well-being for nurses
- How to manage stress and avoid burnout
- Practical self-care strategies for busy healthcare professionals
- The role of leadership in supporting nurse wellness
- Tips for setting boundaries and advocating for your needs

Resources & Links:
Connect with Maureen Metzger on LinkedIn.
Visit Maureen's website.
Free video & guidebook link.

Subscribe, Rate, and Review Don't Eat Your Young!
Your support helps us continue bringing valuable conversations to the nursing community. If you know someone in healthcare who's making a significant impact, we want to hear about them! Whether it's a nurse, NP, CRNA, student, aide, manager, supervisor, or even a patient advocate driving positive change and inspiring others, we’d love to shine a spotlight on their work. Nominate someone today by filling out this form.

Episode Summary:

In this exciting episode, Beth Quaas welcomes Richard Wilson, a knowledgeable DPA, CRNA, FAANA and educator, to discuss how generational differences impact communication, education, and mentorship in the healthcare field. From the challenges of teaching across generations to the evolving landscape of clinical training, Richard shares invaluable insights into fostering collaboration, improving preceptorship, and preparing the next wave of medical professionals.

Key Topics Covered:
✔️ The impact of generational differences on learning and communication
✔️ How educators can adapt their teaching styles to better engage students
✔️ The importance of mentorship and fostering a positive clinical environment
✔️ How new graduates can bridge knowledge gaps and build confidence

Resources & Links:
Connect with Richard Wilson on: LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, and Youtube.
Visit Richard's website.

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