Colleen Sloan finished her nutrition degree pumping breast milk in campus bathrooms. That refusal to wait for a convenient moment runs through everything she's built since.

A registered dietitian(RD) and physician assistant(PA) in paediatric practice, Colleen hosts the Exam Room Nutrition Podcast and trains clinicians in obesity medicine.

This is for any health professional who keeps noticing a problem they can't ignore. Colleen has a pattern of spotting things that harm patients without anyone meaning to, like the shame planted in a seven-year-old during a routine appointment, then building the skills to do something about it. She talks about retraining as a single mum, finding mentors who accelerate rather than just advise, staying authentic instead of fitting the professional mould, and testing a business while keeping her clinical work. If you're weighing more training, or a move from employee to entrepreneur, this gives you a way to make those calls strategically rather than reactively.

• How a major curveball can sharpen your professional direction
• What's wrong with how healthcare talks to kids about their bodies
• Finding mentors who accelerate your growth, not just advise it
• Why authenticity beats fitting a professional stereotype
• Building and testing an expertise business while practising full-time

About Colleen Sloan

Colleen Sloan is a registered dietitian nutritionist (RDN) and certified physician assistant (PA-C) specialising in general outpatient paediatrics. With nearly nine years in clinical practice, she works right at the intersection of nutrition and primary care. She hosts the Exam Room Nutrition Podcast and recently launched an obesity medicine course for clinicians that pairs clinical knowledge with compassionate communication.

Connect with Colleen Sloan

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/examroomnutrition/

Exam Room Nutrition Podcast: https://www.examroomnutritionpodcast.com/

Obesity Medicine Nutrition Course: https://www.examroomnutrition.com/course

Wondering what else might be possible in your healthcare career? The StreamAhead Assessment helps you see which work streams align with your interests and values right now.

Colleen builds the skill to fix the problems she can't ignore. What problem in your work won't leave you alone?
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Katie Blackburn loved clinical work. She also kept thinking there had to be a better way, and that thought wouldn't leave her alone.

A physical therapist specialising in spinal cord injury rehabilitation, Katie moved into quality management, a step she'd once sworn she'd never take.

This is for any health professional who senses there's more they could be doing but isn't sure it's allowed. Katie is candid about feeling stuck with a four-patient caseload when she wanted broader impact, preparing for a new role while working full-time and parenting, and the real grief of letting go of her clinical identity. She shares how she found mentors outside the formal structures, translated her clinical experience into the language of management, and learned to sit with not knowing exactly where she was headed. If you've ever wondered whether there's more for you beyond your current role, this gives you both permission to look and practical steps to take.

• Loving what you're leaving and still needing change
• The strengths and traps of a Type A personality in transition
• Finding mentors outside the formal structures
• Mourning a clinical identity and the imposter syndrome that follows
• Sitting with uncertainty as part of growth

01:50 Why she never imagined leaving clinical practice
03:13 The frustration of impacting four patients at a time
06:17 The relentless pace and emotional toll of clinical work
09:51 How extra projects revealed a pull toward systemic change
16:49 Finding mentors outside formal structures
25:39 The courage to cold-email a mentor
28:11 Why the clinical playbook runs out early
43:29 Practical steps from clinical practice to quality management
50:56 Juggling preparation with a full clinical load
56:18 Mourning a clinical identity and ongoing imposter syndrome

Katie Blackburn is a quality manager and physical therapist with expertise in spinal cord injury rehabilitation in inpatient settings. Her move from full-time clinical practice into healthcare quality management gives her a clear view of systemic change inside healthcare facilities. Her background includes residency training and mentoring programmes, with insight into both structured and informal professional development.

• LinkedIn Katie Blackburn

Wondering what else might be possible in your healthcare career? The StreamAhead Assessment helps you see which work streams align with your interests and values right now.

What's holding you back from exploring what's possible beyond your current clinical role?
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Tesiah Coleman went into nursing to change a system. The system spent years trying to change her instead.

A Women's Health Nurse Practitioner turned founder, she's now CEO of Togather, her health justice platform.

This is for any health professional whose work has cost more than the noble version admits. Tesiah is honest about racism in training, impossible caseloads, and the choice between calling and family when her son was diagnosed with cancer, and why your why holds steady when the how changes.

We Explore

• The gap between nursing's radical roots and how it's actually taught
• Facing racism during clinical training while holding onto your goals
• The impossible maths of community health, too many patients and too little time
• Making career-altering decisions when your child is seriously ill
• Finding a setting where being a fixer is an asset, not a liability

Timestamps
03:33 Creating Togather: Building a Community for Health Justice
06:39 Navigating the Challenges of Healthcare Leadership
09:04 The Impact of Systemic Issues on Healthcare Providers
10:54 The Importance of Collaborative Care Models
13:00 Consulting in Health Tech: Bridging Gaps in Care
16:09 The Path to Nursing: A Personal Journey
18:58 Experiences in Nursing School: Challenges and Triumphs
21:51 The Reality of Community Health Work
25:03 The Intersection of Personal and Professional Life
27:46 Finding Community in Adversity
30:56 The Transition to Health Tech: A New Perspective
33:55 Building Togather: The Vision for a Health Justice Community
36:44 Navigating the Uncertainties of Entrepreneurship
39:34 Lessons Learned: Wisdom for Healthcare Professionals

About Tesiah Coleman

Tesiah is a Women's Health Nurse Practitioner and the founder and CEO of Togather, a community platform for health justice advocates. She came into healthcare as a patient during an unexpected pregnancy, then trained and worked in under-resourced community health before moving into health tech after her son's cancer diagnosis reshaped what she needed from work. She now builds the kind of support and community she went looking for throughout her own career.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tesiahcoleman/

Togather Platform: https://www.togathernow.com/

Kyndred: https://www.withkyndred.com/

Career Cliniq Resources

When the how of your work has to change, the why can stay the same. The StreamAhead Assessment helps you see which work streams fit who you are now.

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Ever felt torn between staying loyal to communities that desperately need you and taking opportunities that serve your own growth? Venus Kalami, a board-certified paediatric dietitian, knows this struggle intimately.

Venus shares her journey from community clinic work to academic medical centres, wrestling with the guilt of leaving under-resourced patients behind. She reveals what cultural humility actually looks like in practice - challenging the "Mediterranean diet is best" narrative and preserving patients' food cultures rather than forcing them into nutrition boxes.

Through honest reflection on the barriers limiting diversity in dietetics and the village of mentors who made her advanced education possible, Venus demonstrates how healthcare careers evolve through unexpected turns and the courage to ask for support.

We Explore

• Cultural humility and the myth of one right way to eat
• The guilt of leaving under-resourced communities for better-supported roles
• The systemic barriers to diversity in dietetics
• Why asking for help and finding mentors is its own skill
• Rethinking your professional identity when an industry role comes calling

Timestamps

00:00 Unexpected career turns that shaped Venus's path
04:07 Finding paediatric nutrition as the right fit
06:49 Cultural humility and the myth of one right way to eat
12:22 Barriers to diversity in dietetics
19:47 Winning scholarships to fund advanced study
25:00 The village of mentors behind her growth
38:48 How investing in education pays off beyond money
41:42 Language as a tool for professional growth
48:53 Navigating a shift in professional identity
53:00 Redefining success beyond traditional metrics

About Venus KalamiVenus Kalami is a board-certified USA paediatric dietitian with expertise in digestive health, cultural humility, and nutrition communications. As a first-generation immigrant, she brings a unique perspective to healthcare that challenges traditional approaches and advocates for cultural inclusivity in nutrition care. Venus has experience in academic medical centres, community clinics, and nutrition consulting, with a master's degree in Nutrition Science and Policy from Tufts University.

Connect with Venus Kalami

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/venuskalami/
• Website: https://www.venuskalamird.com/
• Resources Mentioned: Diversify Dietetics organisation

Career Cliniq Resources

Ready to work out what's next? The StreamAhead Assessment helps you see whether your next move is to optimise, adapt, or reinvent your healthcare career.

Connect with Ruth on LinkedIn | Instagram @drruthvo

How do you know when it's time to make a career move in healthcare?

Olumide Ajulo has navigated this question multiple times. A qualified psychotherapist and clinical psychology master's graduate, Olumide transitioned from finance management to become a team manager in university counselling services. His story demonstrates how to thoughtfully evaluate career decisions while building skills that create new opportunities.

Questions We Explore

• How do you tell the difference between being frustrated with your role and being ready to leave?
• What are you running towards, not just what you're running from?
• What does the full spectrum of healthcare career decisions look like beyond stay or go?
• How do non-negotiables reduce career decision fatigue?
• When patients aren't responding to treatment, is it really their fault?

Chapters

04:04 From finance management to therapeutic practice
06:31 Why acute mental health work appeals despite the challenges
09:02 Relational therapy and building real therapeutic connection
11:31 Career pathways and specialisation decisions in psychology
13:58 Working through client disengagement
16:20 Self-reflection as the engine of career growth
18:48 How emotional intelligence drives professional success
21:11 Rethinking responsibility for treatment outcomes
25:53 Moving from clinical practice into team leadership
27:39 Building effective multidisciplinary teams
29:58 Balancing clinical work with people management
33:35 Working out what actually energises you
39:57 A framework for career decisions using non-negotiables

About Olumide Ajulo

Olumide Ajulo is a counselling psychologist and team manager at a UK university counselling service. After over a decade in finance management, he made the strategic transition to psychology, bringing valuable systems thinking and people management skills to therapeutic practice. He now combines direct client work with team leadership, supervision, and service development in a multidisciplinary mental health setting.

Resources mentioned:

• "The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog" by Dr. Bruce Perry

• Survivors West Yorkshire

Connect with Olumide Ajulo

• LinkedIn HERE

Career Cliniq Resources

Feeling that pull to explore what else might be possible? The StreamAhead Assessment helps you discover which work streams align with your interests right now. Sometimes clarity starts with simply knowing what's out there.

Connect: LinkedIn @Dr Ruth Vo, PhD | Instagram @drruthvo | careerecliniq.com

Nikki Campbell's CV doesn't go in a straight line, and that's the point. She moved from ICU nursing to palliative care to endometriosis coordination by following what mattered to her rather than the ladder she was handed.

An Australian endometriosis nurse coordinator now training as a nurse practitioner, Nikki has built care models from scratch across three very different areas of nursing.

This is for any health professional who suspects their interests are pulling them somewhere their specialty wasn't supposed to go. Nikki is open about following her own health experience into a new field, proving transferable skills when her CV didn't fit the template, and building something while she was still in the middle of delivering it. If you've wondered whether it's safe to ask better questions and follow where they lead, this conversation gives you a real example of someone who did.

• Excelling at work that no longer fits your values
• Why transferable skills can matter more than years in one specialty
• What it costs to ask "why do we do it this way" as a junior
• Letting personal health experience inform professional decisions
• Building a new model of care while you're still delivering it

Timestamps

00:41 From ICU nursing to palliative care
10:55 The pressure of the linear career pathway
16:30 How transferable skills enabled big specialty changes
23:37 Building new care processes while still delivering care
29:14 Asking "why does it have to be like this"
34:38 Being told "you're not allowed to have an opinion"
39:34 Moving states and changing specialties
41:33 How motherhood shifted her view of work
45:26 A nurse practitioner vision for endometriosis care
49:33 Reaching patients through telehealth

About Nikki Campbell

Nikki Campbell is an Australian endometriosis nurse coordinator who moved from ICU nursing to palliative care to women's health. She is currently training as a nurse practitioner while working in telehealth, and specialises in helping endometriosis patients find their way through the healthcare system. Her work includes building new care models, quality improvement, and advocating for neurodivergent-friendly practice.

Connect with Nikki Campbell

• LinkedIn: Connect with Nikki on LinkedIn
• Instagram: Connect with Nikki on Instagram
• Julia Argyrou Endometriosis Centre

Career Cliniq Resources

Wondering which work streams fit where your interests are now, and which transferable skills to invest in next? The StreamAhead Assessment helps you see both.

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Lina Briek kept getting passed over for the promotions she wanted. The thing holding her back inside the system turned out to be the same thing that built her a business outside it.

A dietitian and PhD researcher, Lina founded Tube Dietitian, a Melbourne business supporting adults living with feeding tubes at home, after fourteen years across rural and metropolitan hospitals.

This one is for any health professional who has been told to slow down, dim their enthusiasm, or wait their turn. Lina is candid about how a secondment outside her specialty reshaped how she saw her work, why rural roles taught her more than the prestige posts, and what it took to put a price on her worth after years of being valued by pay scales and awards. If you've ever sensed that the system rewards staying small, there's a lot here worth sitting with.

• What happens when your natural energy gets read as something to manage
• Why rural and grade-one roles can build confidence faster than prestige posts
• How a secondment outside your specialty can change the way you think about your work
• The point where job security starts working against you
• Pricing your worth after years of being valued by pay scales and awards

Timestamps

01:40 Becoming a dietitian and an early bet on nutrition
04:03 What families in intensive care really care about
06:29 Why rural grade-one roles build confidence fast
12:17 "Your confidence is very American" and healthcare hierarchy
20:20 The COVID shift that pushed nutrition aside
25:19 Pricing your worth after public hospital pay scales
28:31 The $5,500 legal lesson that protected the business
30:25 The secondment that changed how she saw her work
34:34 When "coaching" really meant suppress your energy
41:28 Why she wouldn't take the straight-line career path

About Lina Briek

Lina Briek is a dietitian, PhD researcher, and founder of Tube Dietitian, a Melbourne-based business providing specialised nutrition support for adults living with feeding tubes at home. With fourteen years of hospital experience spanning rural general practice to metropolitan ICU, she bridges the gap between hospital discharge and long-term home care. Her research looks at the state of home tube feeding in Australia, with a particular focus on real food approaches.

• LinkedIn: Lina Briek's Profile
• Business Website: Tube Dietitian

Inspired but unsure about your own next steps? The StreamAhead Assessment helps you see which healthcare work streams align with your interests and life right now, including the ones you might not have considered.

Follow the show and find me on LinkedIn or Instagram.

Most practitioners get warned early that certain clients, or certain populations, will be the hard ones. Chris Bradshaw built his career finding close to the opposite.

A psychotherapist with a PhD in clinical psychology, Chris set out to become a civil rights lawyer before his path turned sharply toward therapy.

This conversation is for any health professional who has felt the pressure to always have the right answer, wondered whether "difficult" is a fair label for a client, or questioned how to keep doing meaningful work without it costing them everything. Chris is honest about what gets in our way as helpers, what genuine presence asks of us, and what it takes to build a practice that holds up over time. And if you've been weighing how much of your future should stay client-facing, there's a lot here worth sitting with before you decide.

• The pressure to have the right answer for every client
• Why being truly present feels so uncomfortable for helpers
• Sitting with not knowing while still being useful
• The line between being supportive and being challenging
• What sustainable practice asks of you before burnout forces the question

Timestamps

01:06 Unexpected Pathway into Counselling

03:10 Finding Meaning in Counselling

08:22 Challenging Assumptions in Therapy

14:41 The Journey to Certification

19:57 Research and Therapeutic Presence

24:56 Navigating Therapeutic Presence

27:19 The Role of Presence in Healthcare

29:12 Balancing Client Needs and Professional Expertise

32:04 Burnout in Healthcare Professionals

35:39 Strategies for Preventing Burnout

40:23 Setting Goals and Managing Time

48:19 Future Directions in Therapy Practice

About Chris Bradshaw

Chris Bradshaw is a psychotherapist with a PhD in clinical psychology who specialises in depth-oriented therapy and somatic approaches. His research focuses on therapeutic presence and the client experience of attunement. Chris has worked across diverse settings from addiction treatment to private practice, consistently discovering that the populations others label as "difficult" are often the most ready for meaningful change.

Connect with Chris:

LinkedIn Profile - HERE

Chris' Podcasts - HERE

Working out whether your long-term goals should keep you in client-facing work? The StreamAhead Assessment helps you see which work streams actually align with your interests right now.

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What You'll Learn From This Episode

Professional Identity & Purpose

• "Am I still a PT if I'm not practicing clinically?" - How Raji separates credentials from identity
• Redefining what impact looks like beyond direct patient care
• Why your clinical background is actually your competitive advantage in health tech

The Real Work of Career Transition

• Why your clinical resume won't work for non-clinical roles (and what to do instead)
• The exact LinkedIn strategies that opened doors for Raji
• How to handle rejection, pay cuts, and the humbling reality of starting over
• The networking approach that gets results without seeming desperate

Turning Challenges Into Fuel

• How Raji transformed workplace discrimination into career clarity
• Managing visa restrictions while building a new professional path
• Why COVID-19 became the catalyst she needed to make her move

Chapters

00:43 Raji Introduction

01:34 Starting out & Transitioning into Product Management

03:09 Journey from Clinical to Non-Clinical Roles

05:49 Navigating Challenges in Healthcare

08:43 The Impact of COVID-19 on Healthcare

11:14 Building Leadership Skills in Outpatient Care

14:11 Work-Life Balance and Career Growth

16:34 The Importance of Networking and Mentorship

19:10 Overcoming Rejection and Learning from Mistakes

21:46 Defining Success Beyond Clinical Roles

24:33 The Role of Curiosity in Professional Growth

27:16 Finding Belonging in a New Professional Identity

29:43 Embracing Change and New Opportunities

32:14 The Future of Healthcare and Product Management

Find Raji on LinkedIn:

Ready to Navigate Your Own Career Evolution?

If this conversation sparked something for you, you're not alone. Many healthcare professionals feel stuck or wonder what else might be possible beyond their current role. Get started with the StreamAhead Assessment here.

• Connect with Ruth on LinkedIn or Instagram

Feeling stuck in clinical practice but not sure if academia is for you? Think you missed your chance because you didn't do honours? Caroline Mills shows why your clinical frustrations might actually be pointing you toward your next career evolution.

Dr Caroline Mills is a senior lecturer in occupational therapy at Western Sydney University, Australia whose research is dedicated to improving the lives of autistic people and those who support them. After 11 years as an OT - including time as a school-based therapist working with autistic children across Australia, the UK, and China - burning questions about sensory interventions led her back to university for a PhD in this often controversial research area.Now, 20 years into her health career, current research spans supporting sensory processing in autistic children, aging autistic adults, technology applications for people with disabilities, and dementia interventions, always with a focus on applied research that makes real-world difference.

In this episode, Caroline answers:

• What does a typical academic week actually look like?
• What's the best and hardest thing about being in academia right now?
• How do you handle constant rejection and failure in research?
• How do you measure the real impact of your work when metrics don't tell the story?
• When do you say yes vs no to opportunities (and why you need a mission)?
• How do you find your identity when transitioning from clinician to academic?
• Should you go straight from graduation to academia or get practice experience first?
• What external constraints impact career development in research?
• How do you balance academic demands with having young children?

Caroline's honest insights cover:

• Why clinical experience was essential before her research career
• The toxic work culture in academia and how to navigate it
• Finding your research "people" across different departments
• Managing the slow pace of research
• Building resilience for the rejection-heavy academic world

Perfect for: Clinicians considering research, health professionals curious about academia, or anyone wondering about the reality behind university life.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Academia and Current Role

09:04 Challenges and Rewards in Academia

15:52 The Journey into Research and PhD

20:35 Research Focus and Controversies

27:46 Navigating Opportunities and Saying No

36:19 The Slow Pace of Research

41:26 Career Path and Identity in Academia

47:32 External Influences and Support Systems

Show Links:

• The Conversation
• Connect with Caroline Mills on LinkedIn HERE

Ready to explore if research or education could be your next evolution? Take the StreamAhead Assessment to discover which career pathway truly aligns with your strengths and interests. Learn more HERE.