Maternal and Child Health Nursing is the focus in this episode of the Nursing Notes Live podcast. This week we had a panel discussion on our topic. On the panel is Karen T. Harris, president of the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN), and vice president of Patient Care Services and Chief Nursing Officer at Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital in West Bloomfield, Mich. Also joining us is Ginger Breedlove, president of the American College of Nurse-Midwives and professor of graduate nursing at the Eleanor Wade Custer School of Nursing at Shenandoah University in Winchester, VA. Here’s that discussion.

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Jamie Davis: Hello Karen and Ginger thank you very much for coming on the Nursing Notes Live podcast. It’s great to have you both here with us today. I’m going to start off with my traditional first question and I will ask Karen first. Karen, if you could tell us a little bit about why you wanted to become a nurse.

Karen Harris: Hi, Jamie. Great to be on the call with both you and Ginger. Why I wanted to become a nurse? To be honest with you, since I was a little girl, aged four, sitting on the porch with my mother, and she asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up and my answer was a nurse. Honestly, I never deviated from that. I have always said that. So I think it’s just was innate to what I was meant to do and I think the reason in that is that I just have a true sense of curiosity about people. I love to understand why things are the way they are and how can I make a difference. So the science of nursing along with the art of caring really just comes together for me to make the difference that I want to in people’s lives.

Jamie: Ginger, How about you? Tell us a little bit about your reason for becoming a nurse.

Ginger Breedlove: Absolutely, Jamie. I want to also just express my excitement be able to be on this podcast with Karen. It’s fascinating to listen to people’s stories because I remember the years I spent as a labor and delivery nurse while women were in labor asking them to share about their lives and about their relationships. There’s something unique that hearing someone story that resonates with the listener and hearing your journey has been incredible. I think what strikes me is how we all find our way through our lives based on life experiences, networking and opportunities. So I came a little less traditional, perhaps a little more non-nursing approach as I was a political science major in my undergrad degree and had debated a lot in high school as well as college-level debate and was on my way to law school. Until one of my older brothers who was in law school at the time asked me a little bit about what my intent and my future was. We had a great conversation and the University I was attending had just started and within their second year of baccalaureate nursing education. So I had this heart-to-heart talk and had come from a lot of service health-related volunteer jobs as well in high school from the traditional candy striper to working with mentally and physically disabled children. I realized at some point as I was surrounding myself with people in my dorm about nursing that maybe that’s really what I wanted to do. So it took me about 2½ years to end up doing what my parents thought I should do but at that young age refused to do.

Jamie: Oh, that’s great and I have to say that it’s very interesting as I was listening to the two of you. I’m going to ask you to explain maybe some of the differences and compare-and-contrast...